Nonlinear Sagnac interferometer based on the four-wave mixing process.

Abstract

A new nonlinear Sagnac interferometer (NSI) is proposed by replacing the beam-splitter in the traditional Sagnac interferometer (TSI) with a four-wave mixing process. Such a NSI has better angular velocity sensitivity than the one of the TSI. The standard quantum limit can be beaten and the Heisenberg Limit can even be reached for the ideal case by the NSI. We study the effect of the losses on the angular velocity sensitivity of the NSI and find that the optimal angular velocity, where the best angular velocity sensitivity can be obtained, of the NSI may be dependent on the losses inside the interferometer. Such a NSI has its advantages compared with the TSI and may find its potential applications in quantum metrology.