Experimental implementation of phase locking in a nonlinear interferometer

Phase estimation has a wide range of applications. Over the years, several strategies have been studied to improve precision in phase estimation. These strategies include using exotic quantum states to quantum detection schemes. This dissertation summarizes my effort in improving the precision of phase estimation with a linear and nonlinear interferometer. Chapter 1 introduces quantum optics and quantum metrology. I introduce all relevant quantum states of light used. We also look into tools and terminologies of quantum metrology such as Fisher information, shot-noise limit, Heisenberg limit, etc., along with examples of phase estimation with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In Chapter 2, I discuss multiple phase estimation using a multimode interferometer. Building upon previous work, our scheme consists of a multimode interferometer with single-photon inputs. By using a quantum Fisher information analysis, we show that our scheme gives a constant improvement over other schemes. We also show that our scheme with photon-number-resolving detection approaches the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound. Moreover, we also consider the probabilistic nature of photon emission at the input, and we study its effect on phase sensitivity. I discuss phase estimation with SU(1,1) interferometer in Chapter 3. We look at phase sensitivity in this interferometer with different input states. Namely, we consider two different phase estimation scheme, one using thermal and squeezed states, and others using coherent and displaced squeezed states with parity and on-off as a detection scheme. We also look into the effect of photon loss inside the interferometer. In Chapter 4, we revisit phase estimation in SU(1,1) interferometer from the perspective of quantum Fisher information. I discuss in detail a longstanding confusion regarding the use of quantum Fisher information in SU(1,1) interferometer. We show that phase averaging or quantum Fisher information matrix method is needed in general for calculating the phase sensitivity which resolves inconsistencies reported in previously published articles.

In this work the different schemes of propagation and interaction of the light beams in nonlinear Fabry-Perot interferometer have been studied theoretically and experimentally. Degenerate and non-degenerate four-wave mixing have been realized in the cavity of Fabry-Perot type using Rhodamine-6G dye and polymethine dye 3274U solution as saturable absorber. The diffraction efficiency of intracavity dynamic grating has been studied in dependence on intensity of interacting beams and parameters of resonator. The theoretical model of the processes of intracavity degenerate and non-degenerate four-wave mixing has been developed and applied to the analysis of the efficiency of light beams conversion by mean of Bragg diffraction from intracavity dynamic gratings. For theoretical description of typical experimental situations we used the round-trip model of nonlinear interferometer adapted for the geometry of degenerate four-wave mixing, which can be realized in the scheme of symmetrical oblique incidence of pump, signal and probe beams to the front and back mirrors of cavity.

Lights carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have potential applications in precise rotation measurement, especially in remote sensing. Interferometers, especially nonlinear quantum interferometers, have also been proven to greatly improve the measurement accuracy in quantum metrology. By combining these two techniques, we theoretically propose a new atom-light hybrid Sagnac interferometer with OAM lights to advance the precision of the rotation measurement. A rotation sensitivity below standard quantum limit is achieved due to the enhancement of the quantum correlation of the interferometer even with 96% photon losses. This makes our protocol robustness to the photon loss. Furthermore, combining the slow light effect brings us at least four orders of magnitude of sensitivity better than the earth rotation rate. This new type interferometer has potential applications in high precision rotation sensing.

A nonlinear interferometer uses nonlinear elements as beam splitters to split and to recombine optical waves for interference. As a result, the interference fringe size has a nonlinear dependence on the intensity of the field for phase sensing and leads to an enhanced phase signal. In this paper, a practical scheme of nonlinear interferometry for precision phase measurement is analyzed with parametric amplifiers as the nonlinear beam splitters. It is found that the signal due to phase shift is enhanced by a factor of the amplification gain as compared to a linear interferometer with the same phase-sensing light intensity while the quantum noise is kept at the vacuum level, thus, effectively increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) beyond the standard quantum limit. Furthermore, the scheme is not as sensitive to the detection loss as the linear scheme with a squeezed state for noise reduction. However, losses inside the interferometer limit the enhancement factor in SNR. We apply the concept to a Michelson interferometer but with parametric amplifiers involved for gravitational-wave detection. We find that effective power is increased by the gain of the amplifiers without actually increasing the cycling power inside the interferometer. Furthermore, the full benefits with squeezed input and variational output or the combination of a quantum nondemolition interferometer for sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit apply here with even better results. Such a nonlinear interferometer will find wide applications in precision measurements.

<sec>Squeezed state has important applications in quantum communication, quantum computing, and precision measurement. It has been used to improve the sensitivity and measurement accuracy of gravitational wave detectors. Currently, squeezed state can be prepared by optical parametric oscillators, four-wave mixing, and atom–optomechanical coupling. As a typical non-classical light, the photon statistics of squeezed state usually shows obvious bunching effect, but it can also present photon antibunching effect through interference or photon subtraction operation. More importantly, squeezed coherent state is prepared by performing displacement operation on the squeezed state. In the case of certain displacement and squeezing operations, squeezed coherent state with obvious antibunching effect can be produced. The squeezed coherent state with photon antibunching effect can be employed to achieve super-resolution imaging beyond the diffraction limit, and the state exhibits good particle features which can suppress the multiphoton emission. Then it has become a focus for studying the antibunching effect and quantum statistical properties of squeezed coherent state at a single-photon level.</sec><sec>The photon antibunching effect can be characterized by the second-order photon correlation <i>g</i><sup>(2)</sup>(τ), which is introduced by Glauber to determine the non-classical properties of the light field. Namely, the second-order photon correlation <i>g</i><sup>(2)</sup> can be used as a metric to distinguish different lights. Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) scheme is used to measure the second-order photon correlation experimentally. However, the second-order photon correlation <i>g</i><sup>(2)</sup> can reflect only the variance of the photon-number statistical distribution. In order to obtain more information about the photon statistical distribution and non-classical features, it is necessary to measure higher-order photon correlations. Then the higher-order photon correlations for different light fields are studied by extending the traditional HBT scheme and combining with multiplex single-photon detection technology. This method can be applied to ghost imaging, characterization of single-photon detectors, research of exciton dynamics, and analysis of NV center fluorescence emission. However, the research on photon statistics of the squeezed state focuses mainly on the second-order photon correlation and the effect of displacement amplitude on the statistical properties. The effect of squeezed phase on photon antibunching and higher-order photon correlation of squeezed coherent states, with background noise and detection efficiency taken into consideration, have not been investigated.</sec><sec>In this paper, we study high-order photon correlations and antibunching effect of phase-variable squeezed coherent state based on an extended HBT scheme. The photon statistics of the squeezed coherent state manifests prominent antibunching effect by adjusting the squeezing parameter r, displacement amplitude <i>α</i> and squeezing phase <i>θ</i>. The antibunching effect of the state can be obtained in a wide range of <i>α</i>-<i>r</i> parameter space when squeezing phase <i>θ</i>∈[0,π/2]. In an ideal case, the minimum antibunching values of the squeezed coherent state are <i>g</i><sup>(2)</sup> = 4.006 × 10<sup>–4</sup>, <i>g</i><sup>(3)</sup> = 1.3594 × 10<sup>–4</sup> and <i>g</i><sup>(4)</sup> = 6.6352 × 10<sup>–5</sup>. When the detection efficiency <i>η</i> = 0.1 and background noise <i>γ</i> = 10<sup>–6</sup>, the strong antibunching effect can still be observed, specifically, <i>g</i><sup>(2)</sup> = 0.1740, <i>g</i><sup>(3)</sup> = 0.0432, <i>g</i><sup>(4)</sup> = 0.0149. The results indicate that the antibunching effect of higher-order photon correlation has strong robustness against the experimental environment. In addition, the antibunching effect of the phase-variable squeezed coherent state is studied as a function of the measured mean photon number <<i>n</i>> and the squeezing degree S. When the measured mean photon number is much less than 1 and the squeezing parameter is less than 10<sup>–4</sup>, a prominent photon anti-bunching effect of <i>g</i><sup>(<i>n</i>)</sup> <inline-formula><tex-math id="Z-20220921173504">\begin{document}$\ll $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20220574_Z-20220921173504.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20220574_Z-20220921173504.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> 0.5 can still be obtained. The results show that the control of the squeezing phase <i>θ</i> can be used to prepare the squeezed coherent state with obvious antibunching effect, which has potentially important applications in quantum metrology and secure communication.</sec>

Optical fibre amplifiers used in communication systems with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) should have a gain spectrum with the nonuniformity not exceeding the units of dB for optical networks and the tenth and even the hundredth of dB for long-haul lines. We propose a new type of the dynamic gain equalizing filter (GEF). Its functioning is based on the use of nonlinear Fabry-Perot interferometer. The proposed GEF allows to obtain the flat gain spectrum of such amplifier in the range of 1534-1561 nm at pumping power of about 5 mW and additional loss of about 0.9 dB

Controlling the spread of correlations in quantum many-body systems is a key challenge at the heart of quantum science and technology. Correlations are usually destroyed by dissipation arising from coupling between a system and its environment. Here, we show that dissipation can instead be used to engineer a wide variety of spatio-temporal correlation profiles in an easily tunable manner. We describe how dissipation with any translationally-invariant spatial profile can be realized in cold atoms trapped in an optical cavity. A uniform external field and the choice of spatial profile can be used to design when and how dissipation creates or destroys correlations. We demonstrate this control by preferentially generating entanglement at a desired wavevector. We thus establish non-local dissipation as a new route towards engineering the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of quantum information, with potential applications in quantum metrology, state preparation, and transport.

The squeezing level of light on atomic resonance produced by a degenerate optical parametric amplifier (DOPA) is now limited by blue or violet pump-light-induced loss, and it is difficult to improve the squeezing by simply reducing the loss of DOPA. In this study, two promising schemes, namely, the cascaded DOPA (C-DOPA) and the coherent feedback-controlled DOPA (CFC-DOPA), are theoretically discussed. For a ideal case, the CFC-DOPA can realize infinite squeezing output but requires almost infinite accuracy in phase locking. For a practical case with feasible physical parameters of realistic systems, the performance of squeezing enhancement for the C-DOPA and CFC-DOPA is compared. The C-DOPA shows advantages in the megahertz frequency range, while the CFC-DOPA shows advantages in the low-frequency range. At a general analysis frequency of 2 MHz, C-DOPA shows better robustness against the loss of the system. As a price, it requires a smaller instability tolerance for phase locking. With the C-DOPA, the squeezing on Rb atomic resonance can be pushed from − 5 d B to − 7 d B . Our analytical results can provide a valuable reference for designing experimental devices to efficiently produce high-quality squeezed light on atomic resonance, which has potential applications in quantum information processing and quantum metrology.

The study of entanglement properties of multi-qubit states that are invariant under permutations of qubits is motivated by potential applications in quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum metrology. In this work, we generalize the notions of symmetrization, Dicke states, and the Majorana representation to the alternating, cyclic, and dihedral subgroups of the full group of permutations. We use these tools to characterize states that are invariant under these subgroups and analyze their entanglement properties.

Generating field-free (non-stationary) orientation of molecules in space has been a longstanding goal in the field of quantum control of molecular rotation, which has significant applications in physical chemistry, chemical physics, strong-field physics, and quantum information science. In this Perspective, we review and examine several representative control schemes developed in recent years and implemented in theoretical and experimental areas for generating field-free orientation of molecules. By conducting numerical simulations of different control schemes on the same molecular system, we demonstrate that quantum coherent control, specifically targeting a limited number of the lowest-lying rotational levels to achieve an optimal superposition, can result in a high degree of orientation. To this end, we provide an overview of our latest developed analytical method, which enables the precise design of terahertz field parameters through resonant excitation. This design approach facilitates the attainment of desired field-free orientations by optimizing the amplitudes and phases of rotational wave functions for the selected rotational levels. Finally, we outlook the significance of such progress in multiple frontier research fields, highlighting its potential applications in ultracold physics, quantum computation, quantum simulation, and quantum metrology.

Quantum metrology is deeply connected to quantum geometry, through the fundamental notion of quantum Fisher information. Inspired by advances in topological matter, it was recently suggested that the Berry curvature and Chern numbers of band structures can dictate strict lower bounds on metrological properties, hence establishing a strong connection between topology and quantum metrology. In this work, we provide a first experimental verification of such topological bounds, by performing optimal quantum multi-parameter estimation and achieving the best possible measurement precision. By emulating the band structure of a Chern insulator, we experimentally determine the metrological potential across a topological phase transition, and demonstrate strong enhancement in the topologically non-trivial regime. Our work opens the door to metrological applications empowered by topology, with potential implications for quantum many-body systems.

Quantum metrology utilizes nonclassical states (of light) to outperform the accuracy limits of its classical counterpart. We demonstrate the relevance of photon number Fock states and polarization entanglement for the experimental realization of interferometric quantum metrology applications.

We theoretically analyze the phase sensitivity of the Induced-Coherence (Mandel-Type) Interferometer, including the case where the sensitivity is "boosted" into the bright input regime with coherent-light seeding. We find scaling which reaches below the shot noise limit, even when seeding the spatial mode which does not interact with the sample – or when seeding the undetected mode. It is a hybrid of a linear and a non-linear (Yurke-Type) interferometer, and aside from the supersensitivity, is distinguished from other systems by "preferring" an imbalance in the gains of the two non-linearities (with the second gain being optimal at low values), and non-monotonic behavior of the sensitivity as a function of the gain of the second non-linearity. Furthermore, the setup allows use of subtracted intensity measurements, instead of direct (additive) or homodyne measurements – a significant practical advantage. Bright, super-sensitive phase estimation of an object with different light fields for interaction and detection is possible, with various potential applications, especially in cases where the sample may be sensitive to light, or is most interesting in frequency domains outside what is easily detected, or when desiring bright-light phase estimation with sensitive/delicate detectors. We use an analysis in terms of general squeezing and discover that super-sensitivity occurs only in this case – that is, the effect is not present with the spontaneous-parametric-down-conversion approximation, which many previous analyses and experiments have focused on.

We investigate the phase sensitivity of the SU(1,1) interfereometer [SU(1,1)I] and the modified Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MMZI) with the entangled coherent states (ECS) as inputs. We consider the ideal case and the situations in which the photon losses are taken into account. We find that, under ideal conditions, the phase sensitivity of both the MMZI and the SU(1,1)I can beat the shot-noise limit (SNL) and approach the Heisenberg limit (HL). In the presence of photon losses, the ECS can beat the coherent and squeezed states as inputs in the SU(1,1)I, and the MMZI is more robust against internal photon losses than the SU(1,1)I.

Intense ultrashort waveforms of light that can be produced with an exactly predetermined electromagnetic field are essential in a number of applications of extreme nonlinear optics, most prominently in laser-driven sources of high-energy attosecond radiation. Field reproducibility in each laser shot requires stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase. The authors analyze different schemes of phase-stable pulse amplification and identify constraints limiting the precision with which the phase can be maintained. Next, they describe a phase-stabilized laser system based on a 20-fs multipass Ti:sapphire amplifier supplemented with a fiber compression stage for producing pulses in the few-cycle regime. It is shown that the amplifier introduces only a slow millihertz phase drift and, therefore, can be seeded by a standard phase-stabilized oscillator. This residual phase drift is assigned primarily to the beam pointing instability and can be precompensated in the phase-control loop of the seed oscillator using a feedback signal from a phase detector placed in the amplifier output. The phase stability of the resultant 5-fs 400-/spl mu/J pulses at a 1-kHz repetition rate is subsequently independently verified by higher order harmonic generation, in which different carrier-envelope phase settings are shown, both theoretically and experimentally, to produce distinctly different spectral shapes of the XUV radiation. From a series of such spectral patterns, the authors succeed in calibrating the value of the carrier envelope phase (with a /spl plusmn//spl pi/ ambiguity), which in turn allows them to fully characterize the temporal structure of the electric field of the laser pulses. The estimated precision of the phase control on the XUV target is better than /spl pi//5, which reduces the timing jitter between the driving laser pulse and the XUV bursts to /spl sim/ 250 as and opens the way to generate stable isolated attosecond pulses.