Photonic Quantum Metrologies Using Photons: Phase Super-sensitivity and Entanglement-Enhanced Imaging

Abstract

Quantum information science has been attracting significant attention recently. It harnesses the intrinsic nature of quantum mechanics such as quantum superposition, the uncertainty principle, and quantum entanglement to realize novel functions. Recently, quantum metrology has been emerging as an application of quantum information science. Among the many physical quanta, photons are an indispensable tool for metrology, as light-based measurements are applicable to fields ranging from astronomy to life science. In quantum metrology, quantum entanglement between photons is the phenomenon utilized.In this chapter, we will try to give a brief overview of this emerging field mainly focusing on two topics: Optical phase measurements beyond the standard quantum limit (SQL) and quantum optical coherence tomography (QOCT). The sensitivity of an optical phase measurement for a given photon number N is usually limited by \(\sqrt{N}\), which is called the SQL or shot noise limit. However, the SQL can be overcome when non-classical light is used. We explain the basic concepts and the recent experimental results that exceed the SQL, and an application of this technology for microscopy. QOCT harnesses the quantum entanglement of photons in frequency to cancel out the dispersion effect, which degrades the resolution of conventional OCT. The mechanism of the dispersion cancellation and the latest experimental results will be given.