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InTech eBooks

Quantum Non-Demolition Measurement of Photons

Keyu Xia

Published Mar 21, 2018• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, measurement of a quantum observable introduces noise to this observable and thus limits the available precision of measurement. Quantum non-demolition measurements are designed to circumvent this limitation and have been demonstrated in detecting the photon flux of classical light beam. Quantum non-demolition measurement of a single photon is the ultimate goal because it is of great interest in fundamental physics and also a powerful tool for applications in quantum information processing. This chapter presents a brief introduction of the history and a review of the progress in quantum non-demolition measurement of light. In particular, a detailed description is presented for two works toward cavity-free schemes of quantum non-demolition measurement of single photons. Afterward, an outlook of the future in this direction is given.

DOI
10.5772/intechopen.72871

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According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, measurement of a quantum observable introduces noise to this observable and thus limits the available precision of measurement. Quantum non-demolition measurements are designed to circumvent this limitation and have been demonstrated in detecting the photon flux of classical light beam. Quantum non-demolition measurement of a single photon is the ultimate goal because it is of great interest in fundamental physics and also a powerful tool for applications in quantum information processing. This chapter presents a brief introduction of the history and a review of the progress in quantum non-demolition measurement of light. In particular, a detailed description is presented for two works toward cavity-free schemes of quantum non-demolition measurement of single photons. Afterward, an outlook of the future in this direction is given.
This is a limited overview of quantum non-demolition (QND) measurements, with brief discussions of illustrative examples meant to clarify the essential features. In a QND measurement, the predictability of a subsequent value of a precisely measured observable is maintained and any random back-action from uncertainty introduced into a noncommuting observable is avoided. The fundamental ideas, relevant theory and the conditions and scope for applicability are discussed with some examples. Precision measurements have indeed gained from developing QND measurements. Some implementations in quantum optics, gravitational wave detectors and spin-magnetometry are discussed.
I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii The act of measuring an observable of a quantum system introduces backaction noise to the measured system. In the most extreme case, the system gets destroyed with its state left unavailable for future measurement. An example is the photodetection process where photons are destroyed upon detection. It is desirable to consider schemes that avoid the back action effect induced on detected observable due to the measurement. Such measurement scheme in which one is able to repeat a measurement on a physical observable, with the result of each measurement being the same for all measurement times is known as quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement. With the QND measurement idea, it has become possible to detect photons without destroying its state. In this thesis, we present an optical QND measurement scheme known as the Mode invisibility technique to measure
When atoms are illuminated by an off-resonant field, the AC Stark effect will lead to phase shifts in atomic states. The phase shifts are proportional to the photon number of the off-resonant illuminating field. By measuring the atomic phase with newly developed atom-light hybrid interferometers, we can achieve quantum non-demolition measurement of the photon number of the optical field. In this paper, we analyze theoretically the performance of this QND measurement scheme by using the QND measurement criteria established by Holland et al [Phys. Rev. A 42, 2995 (1990)]. We find the quality of the QND measurement depends on the phase resolution of the atom-light hybrid interferometers. We apply this QND measurement scheme to a twin-photon state from parametric amplifier to verify the photon correlation in the twin beams. Furthermore, a sequential QND measurement procedure is analyzed for verifying the projection property of quantum measurement and for the quantum information tapping. Finally, we discuss the possibility for single-photon-number-resolving detection via QND measurement.
Quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement is an important tool in the fields of quantum information processing and quantum optics. The atom-light hybrid interferometer is of great interest due to its combination of an atomic spin wave and an optical wave, which can be utilized for photon number QND measurement via the AC-Stark effect. In this paper, we present an SU(1,1)-SU(2)-concatenated atom-light hybrid interferometer, and theoretically study QND measurement of the photon number. Compared to the traditional SU(2) interferometer, the signal-to-noise ratio in a balanced case is improved by a gain factor of the nonlinear Raman process (NRP) in this proposed interferometer. Furthermore, the condition of high-quality QND measurement is analyzed. In the presence of losses, the measurement quality is reduced. We can adjust the gain parameter of the NRP in the readout stage to reduce the impact due to losses. Moreover, this scheme is a multiarm interferometer, which has the potential of multiparameter estimation with many important applications in the detection of vector fields, quantum imaging, and so on.
The fundamental question of when a static or dynamic system should be deemed intrinsically quantum remains a challenge to address in absolute terms. In this regard, a critical requirement lies in the certification (ideally, in real-time) of the emergence and persistence of genuine quantum features, principally entanglement and quantum superposition. Quantum Non-Demolition Measurements (QNDM) serve as the appropriate instrument for this certification, both from a theoretical and experimental standpoint. In this review paper, we explain, with accessible clarity, how the implementation of QNDM can be directly linked to a necessary and sufficient condition for the presence of genuinely quantum features in the system's state monitored over time in finite-dimensional systems, establishing a conceptual parallel with Leggett-Garg inequalities. Using concrete examples that detail the detection of negative terms in the quasi-probability density function resulting from QNDM, we introduce the core concepts for quantumness certification. As specific examples, we discuss an application where the quantum-to-classical transition due to the interaction with an environment can be tracked by QNDM. Moreover, we argue about the robustness of QNDM protocols in the presence of noise sources and their advantages with respect to standard Leggett-Garg inequalities defined by two-time correlators.