Photonic polarization gears for ultra-sensitive angular measurements

Year: 2013

Authors: D’Ambrosio V., Spagnolo N., Del Re L., Slussarenko S., Li Y., Kwek LC., Marrucci L., Walborn S.P., Aolita L., Sciarrino F.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Roma La Sapienza, Dipartimento Fis, I-00185 Rome, Italy; Univ Naples Federico II, Dipartimento Fis, I-80126 Naples, Italy; Natl Univ Singapore, Ctr Quantum Technol, Singapore 117543, Singapore; Nanyang Technol Univ, Inst Adv Studies, Singapore 639673, Singapore; Nanyang Technol Univ, Natl Inst Educ, Singapore 637616, Singapore; CNR SPIN, I-80126 Naples, Italy; Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Inst Fis, BR-21941972 Rio De Janeiro, RJ, Brazil; ICFO Inst Ciencies Foton, Castelldefels 08860, Barcelona, Spain; Free Univ Berlin, Dahlem Ctr Complex Quantum Syst, Berlin, Germany; Ist Nazl Ott INO CNR, I-50125 Florence, Italy.

Abstract: Quantum metrology bears a great promise in enhancing measurement precision, but is unlikely to become practical in the near future. Its concepts can nevertheless inspire classical or hybrid methods of immediate value. Here we demonstrate NOON-like photonic states of m quanta of angular momentum up to m = 100, in a setup that acts as a ’photonic gear’, converting, for each photon, a mechanical rotation of an angle theta into an amplified rotation of the optical polarization by m theta, corresponding to a ’super-resolving’ Malus’ law. We show that this effect leads to single-photon angular measurements with the same precision of polarization-only quantum strategies with m photons, but robust to photon losses. Moreover, we combine the gear effect with the quantum enhancement due to entanglement, thus exploiting the advantages of both approaches. The high ’gear ratio’ m boosts the current state of the art of optical non-contact angular measurements by almost two orders of magnitude.

Journal/Review: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS

Volume: 4      Pages from: 2432-1  to: 2432-8

More Information: This work was supported by the FET-Open Program, within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission under Grant no. 255914, PHORBITECH. V.DA., N.S., L.D.R., F.S. acknowledge the support from FIRB-Futuro in Ricerca (HYTEQ), Progetto Ateneo of Sapienza Universita di Roma, Finanziamento per Avvio alla Ricerca 2012 of Sapienza Universita di Roma. S.P.W. acknowledges the support from the brazilian agencies CNPq and FAPERJ. L.A. acknowledges the support from the Spanish Juan de la Cierva foundation and the EU under Marie Curie IEF No 299141. Y.L. and L.C.K. acknowledge the support from the National Research Foundation and the Ministry of Education in Singapore.
KeyWords: Quantum-enhanced Metrology; Noon States; Q-plates; Momentum; Limit; Entanglement; Light
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3432

Citations: 280
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