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Quantum Enhanced Mechanical Rotation Sensing using Wavefront Photonic Gears

Ofir Yesharim, Guy Tshuva, Ady Arie

Published Jan 1, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a compact and efficient rotation sensing mechanism that uses structured light and is enhanced by bright N00N states. It uses two opposite spiral phase plates that convert mechanical rotation to wavefront phase shifts.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_at.2024.jw2a.150

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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)•Jun 23, 2025•0 citations
The rotational Doppler effect (RDE) is the angular analog of the linear Doppler effect, manifested by a frequency shift of a wave that is scattered from a rotating object. Here, we extend the sensing of this effect to the quantum optical regime. We demonstrate quantum Doppler shift sensing using a rotating photonic gear—a pair of spiral phase plates with opposite topological charge—in a two-photon N00N state interferometer. Continuous rotation of one plate produces time-varying coincidence fringes that reveal the rotational Doppler shift. The oscillation frequency scales with the topological charge ℓ of the spiral phase plate and the photon number N . Experiments with ℓ = 16 and ℓ = 128 confirm the predicted linear scaling while maintaining visibility, enabling quantum rotation sensing of slowly rotating objects.
Vectorial modes of light, a type of structured light where the polarization varies across the beam profile, are a useful tool both in classical and quantum applications. In quantum communication, for instance, these modes enable rotational invariant protocols, therefore overcoming the requirement of a shared reference frame between users. Moreover, structured light can be a resource for enhanced sensing purposes as for instance in the “photonic gears” technique. This quantum inspired scheme enables a boost of sensitivity in mechanical displacements measurement thanks to a bidirectional mapping between the polarization state and a properly tailored vectorial mode of a paraxial light beam. Finally, we will discuss how quantum interference can be controlled and tailored for structured light modes, therefore providing a key ingredient for exploiting the full potential of complex light in the quantum domain.
The rotational properties of a light beam are controlled by its spin and orbital angular momentum (SAM and OAM). The q-plate, a liquid crystal device that can give rise to a coupling of these two quantities, was introduced a few years ago, leading to several applications in classical and quantum photonics. Very recently, in particular, a specific kind of q-plate was used to generate rotational-invariant states of single photons, which were then employed for performing a demonstration of quantum key distribution without the need for establishing a common reference frame between the transmitting and the receiving units. This result may find applications in future satellite-based quantum communication. By a similar approach, photonic states having a strongly enhanced rotational sensitivity, as opposed to rotational invariance, can be generated by using q-plates with very high topological charge. Photons in these states can be obtained starting from light having a uniform linear polarization and, after a physical rotation, can be converted back into light having uniformly linear polarization. As a result, one obtains linearly polarized light whose polarization plane rotates by an angle that is proportional to the angle of physical rotation between the generation and detection stages, with a very large proportionality constant. This effect of rotational amplification, which we named “photonic gear”, leads to a sort of “super-resolved Malus’ law”, potentially useful for measuring mechanical angles with very high precision.
Multi-photon entangled states of light such as N00N (N is the photon number) and squeezed states are routinely used in quantum metrological experiments. Spatially structuring these quantum optical states improves the sensitivity and enhances resolution by using the high dimensional spatial degree of freedom. However, progress in quantum structured light mainly focused on either increasing the number of photons, or increasing the mode numbers, separately [1]. The reason is that generating high (mode number>> 10) dimensional structured light states is usually a lossy process that degrades multi-photon states of light.