Phase sensitivity of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Journal Article · Sun Jan 15 00:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.73.0· OSTI ID:20786630

Pezze, Luca; Smerzi, Augusto ^[1]

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1. Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States) and Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia BEC-CRS and Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Trento, I-38050 Povo (Italy)

The best performance of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is achieved with the input state N{sub T}/2+1>N{sub T}/2-1>+N{sub T}/2-1>N{sub T}/2+1>, N{sub T} being the total number of atoms or photons. This gives (i) a phase-shift error confidence C{sub 68/%=}2.67/N{sub T} with (ii) a single interferometric measurement. Different input quantum states can achieve the Heisenberg scaling {approx}1/N{sub T} but with higher prefactors and at the price of a statistical analysis of two or more independent measurements.

• OSTI ID: 20786630
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 73, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.73.011801; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
ENERGY LEVELS
MACH-ZEHNDER INTERFEROMETER
OPTICS
PERFORMANCE
PHASE SHIFT
PHOTONS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SENSITIVITY