Heisenberg-limited polarimetry using multiphoton two-mode Fock states

Abstract

We show that appropriate nonclassical photon states can attain Heisenberg-limited sensitivity in polarimetric measurements, in which the squared amplitudes of the photon states are measured. These photon states, which can be constructed from the two-mode Fock states, are found as the eigenstates of a Hermitian operator, which is closely related to the quantum Stokes operators. The algebraic property of the Hermitian operator governs the interferometric behavior in polarimetric interactions and provides the frequency of the interferometric fringes scaled by the total number of photons of the state. Thus, the polarimetry is able to achieve Heisenberg-limited sensitivity.