We use a photon-number resolving detector to monitor the photon number distribution of the output of an interferometer, as a function of phase delay. As inputs we use coherent states with mean photon number up to seven. The postselection of a specific Fock (photon-number) state effectively induces high-order optical non-linearities. Following a scheme by Bentley and Boyd [S.J. Bentley and R.W. Boyd, Optics Express 12, 5735 (2004)] we explore this effect to demonstrate interference patterns a factor of five smaller than the Rayleigh limit.
Interferometric signals are degraded by decoherence, which encompasses dephasing, mixing and any distinguishing which-path information. These three paradigmatic processes are fundamentally different, but, for coherent, single-photon and $N00N$-states, they degrade interferometric visibility in the very same way, which impedes the diagnosis of the cause for reduced visibility in a single experiment. We introduce a versatile formalism for many-boson interferometry based on double-sided Feynman diagrams, which we apply to a protocol for differential decoherence diagnosis: Twin-Fock states |N,N> w…
We study Fock state interferometry, consisting of a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer with two Fock state inputs and photon-number-resolved detection at the two outputs. We show that it allows discrimination of a discrete number of apriori-known optical phase shifts with an error probability lower than what is feasible with classical techniques under a mean photon number constraint. We compare its performance with the optimal quantum probe for M-ary phase discrimination, which unlike our probe, is difficult to prepare. Our technique further allows discriminating a null phase shift from an increasing…
After reviewing parity measurement based interferometry with twin-Fock states, which allows for super-sensitivity (Heisenberg-limited) and super-resolution, we consider interferometry with two different superpositions of twin-Fock states, namely two-mode squeezed vacuum states and pair coherent states. This study is motivated by the experimental challenge of producing twin-Fock states on opposite sides of a beam splitter. We find that input two-mode squeezed states, while allowing for Heisenberg-limited sensitivity, do not yield super-resolutions, whereas we that find both are possible with in…
In this paper, we derive a general expression of the quantum Fisher information of an SU(1,1) interferometer with an arbitrary state and a Fock state as inputs by the phase-averaging method. Our results show that the same quantum Fisher information can be obtained regardless of the specific form of the arbitrary state. Then, we analytically prove that the parity measurement can saturate the quantum Cramer-Rao bound when the estimated phase sits at the optimal working point. For practical reasons, we investigate the phase sensitivity when the arbitrary state is a coherent or thermal state. We f…
Quantum scissors device of Pegg et al. (1998 Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1604) enables truncation of the Fock-state expansion of an input optical field to qubit and qutrit (three-dimensional) states only. Here, a generalized scissors device is proposed using an eight-port optical interferometer. Upon post-selection based on photon counting results, the interferometer implements generation and teleportation of qudit (d-dimensional) states by truncation of an input field at the (d-1)th term of its Fock-state expansion up to d=6. Examples of selective truncations, which can be interpreted as a Fock-stat…
Interferometry with Heisenberg limited phase resolution may play an important role in the next generation of atomic clocks, gravitational wave detectors, and in quantum information science. For experimental implementations the robustness of the phase resolution is crucial since any experimental realization will be subject to imperfections. In this article we study the robustness of phase reconstruction with two number states as input subject to fluctuations in the state preparation. We find that the phase resolution is insensitive to fluctuations in the total number of particles and robust aga…
The problem of on-demand generation of entanglement between single-atom qubits via a common photonic channel is examined within the framework of optical interferometry. As expected, for a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with coherent laser beam as input, a high-finesse optical cavity is required to overcome sensitivity to spontaneous emission. We show, however, that with a twin-Fock input, useful entanglement can in principle be created without cavity-enhancement. Both approaches require single-photon resolving detectors, and best results would be obtained by combining both cavity-feedback and twi…
Selective truncation of Fock-state expansion of an optical field can be achieved using projection synthesis. The process removes predetermined Fock states from the input field by conditional measurement and teleportation. We present a scheme based on multiport interferometry to perform projection synthesis. This scheme can be used both as a generalized quantum scissors device, which filters out Fock states with photon numbers higher than a predetermined value, and also as a quantum punching device, which selectively removes specific Fock states making holes in the Fock-state expansion of the i…
The problem of long-distance teleportation of single-atom qubits via a common photonic channel is examined within the framework of a Mach-Zender optical interferometer. As expected, when a coherent state is used as input, a high-finesse optical cavity is required to overcome sensitivity to spontaneous emission. However, we find that a number-squeezed light field in a twin-Fock state can in principle create useful entanglement without cavity-enhancement. Both approaches require single photon counting detectors, and best results are obtained by combining cavity-feedback with twin-fock inputs. Su…
Every measurement of the population in an uncorrelated ensemble of two-level systems is limited by what is known as the quantum projection noise limit. Here, we present quantum projection noise limited performance of a Ramsey type interferometer using freely propagating coherent atoms. The experimental setup is based on an electro-optic modulator in an inherently stable Sagnac interferometer, optically coupling the two interfering atomic states via a two-photon Raman transition. Going beyond the quantum projection noise limit requires the use of reduced quantum uncertainty (squeezed) states. T…
A two-photon Fock state is prepared in a cavity sustaining a "source mode " and a "target mode", with a single circular Rydberg atom. In a third-order Raman process, the atom emits a photon in the target while scattering one photon from the source into the target. The final two-photon state is probed by measuring by Ramsey interferometry the cavity light shifts induced by the target field on the same atom. Extensions to other multi-photon processes and to a new type of micromaser are briefly discussed.
Weak measurements in combination with post-selection can give rise to a striking amplification effect (related to a large "weak value"). We show that this effect can be understood by viewing the initial state of the pointer as the ground state of a fictional harmonic oscillator, helping us to clarify the transition from the weak-value regime to conventional dark-port interferometry. We then describe how to implement fully quantum weak-value measurements combining photons and atomic ensembles.
We present explicit expressions for Fock-space projection operators that correspond to realistic final states in scattering experiments. Our operators automatically sum over unobserved quanta and account for non-emission into sub-regions of momentum space.
We develop general tools to characterise and efficiently compute relevant observables of multimode $N$-photon states generated in non-linear decays in one-dimensional waveguides. We then consider optical interferometry in a Mach-Zender interferometer where a $d$-mode photonic state enters in each arm of the interferometer. We derive a simple expression for the Quantum Fisher Information in terms of the average photon number in each mode, and show that it can be saturated by number-resolved photon measurements that do not distinguish between the different $d$ modes.
A Mach-Zender interferometer with a gaussian number-difference squeezed input state can exhibit sub-shot-noise phase resolution over a large phase-interval. We obtain the optimal level of squeezing for a given phase-interval $Δθ_0$ and particle number $N$, with the resulting phase-estimation uncertainty smoothly approaching $3.5/N$ as $Δθ_0$ approaches 10/N, achieved with highly squeezed states near the Fock regime. We then analyze an adaptive measurement scheme which allows any phase on $(-π/2,π/2)$ to be measured with a precision of $3.5/N$ requiring only a few measurements, even for very la…
The fundamental quantum interferometry bound limits the sensitivity of an interferometer for a given total rate of photons and for a given decoherence rate inside the measurement device.We theoretically show that the recently reported quantum-noise limited sensitivity of the squeezed-light-enhanced gravitational-wave detector GEO600 is exceedingly close to this bound, given the present amount of optical loss. Furthermore, our result proves that the employed combination of a bright coherent state and a squeezed vacuum state is generally the optimum practical approach for phase estimation with h…
We propose and demonstrate experimentally a projection scheme to measure the quantum phase with a precision beating the standard quantum limit. The initial input state is a twin Fock state $|N,N>$ proposed by Holland and Burnett [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 71}, 1355 (1993)] but the phase information is extracted by a quantum state projection measurement. The phase precision is about $1.4/N$ for large photon number $N$, which approaches the Heisenberg limit of 1/N. Experimentally, we employ a four-photon state from type-II parametric down-conversion and achieve a phase uncertainty of $0.291\pm 0.001…
Applying the thermo field dynamics, we reformulate exact quantum number projection in the finite-temperature Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory. Explicit formulae are derived for the simultaneous projection of particle number and angular momentum, in parallel to the zero-temperature case. We also propose a practical method for the variation-after-projection calculation, by approximating entropy without conflict with the Peierls inequality. The quantum number projection in the finite-temperature mean-field theory will be useful to study effects of quantum fluctuations associated with the conservati…
We propose a generalization of the Tonks-Girardeau model that describes a coherent gas of cold two-level Bosons which interact with two external fields in a Ramsey interferometer. They also interact among themselves by contact collisions with interchange of momentum and internal state. We study the corresponding Ramsey fringes and the quantum projection noise which, essentially unaffected by the interactions, remains that for ideal Bosons. The dual system of this gas, an ideal gas of two-level Fermions coupled by the interaction with the separated fields, produces the same fringes and noise fl…
When independent Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), described quantum mechanically by Fock (number) states, are sent into interferometers, the measurement of the output port at which the particles are detected provides a binary measurement, with two possible results $\pm1$. With two interferometers and two BEC's, the parity (product of all results obtained at each interferometer) has all the features of an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen quantity, with perfect correlations predicted by quantum mechanics when the settings (phase shifts of the interferometers) are the same. When they are different, signif…
