Unconditional violation of the shot-noise limit in photonic quantum metrology

Abstract

Interferometric phase measurement is widely used to precisely determine quantities such as length, speed, and material properties. Without quantum correlations, the best phase sensitivity $\Delta\varphi$ achievable using $n$ photons is the shot noise limit (SNL), $\Delta\varphi=1/\sqrt{n}$. Quantum-enhanced metrology promises better sensitivity, but despite theoretical proposals stretching back decades, no measurement using photonic (i.e. definite photon number) quantum states has truly surpassed the SNL. Rather, all such demonstrations --- by discounting photon loss, detector inefficiency, or other imperfections --- have considered only a subset of the photons used. Here, we use an ultra-high efficiency photon source and detectors to perform unconditional entanglement-enhanced photonic interferometry. Sampling a birefringent phase shift, we demonstrate precision beyond the SNL without artificially correcting our results for loss and imperfections. Our results enable quantum-enhanced phase measurements at low photon flux and open the door to the next generation of optical quantum metrology advances.