Weak measurement of photon polarization by back-action induced path interference

Abstract

The essential feature of weak measurements on quantum systems is the reduction of measurement back-action to negligible levels. To observe the non-classical features of weak measurements, it is therefore more important to avoid additional back-action errors than it is to avoid errors in the actual measurement outcome. In this paper, it is shown how an optical weak measurement of diagonal (PM) polarization can be realized by path interference between the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) polarization components of the input beam. The measurement strength can then be controlled by rotating the H and V polarizations towards each other. This well-controlled operation effectively generates the back-action without additional decoherence, while the visibility of the interference between the two beams only limits the measurement resolution. As the experimental results confirm, we can obtain extremely high weak values, even at rather low visibilities. Our method therefore provides a realization of weak measurements that is extremely robust against experimental imperfections.

11 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Ultrasensitive Beam Deflection Measurement via Interferometric Weak Value Amplification
• Experimental joint weak measurement on a photon pair as a probe of Hardy's Paradox
• Weak values and the Leggett-Garg inequality in solid-state qubits
• Direct observation of Hardy's paradox by joint weak measurement with an entangled photon pair
• Strange Weak Values
• Geometrical aspects of weak measurements and quantum erasers

Cited by in corpus (31)

• Leggett-Garg Inequalities
• Nonperturbative theory of weak pre- and post-selected measurements
• Violation of Heisenberg's Measurement-Disturbance Relationship by Weak Measurements
• The significance of the imaginary part of the weak value
• Violation of Leggett-Garg inequalities in quantum measurements with variable resolution and back-action
• Certainty in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle: Revisiting definitions for estimation errors and disturbance
• All-order evaluation of weak measurements: --- The cases of an operator $\mathbf{A}$ which satisfies the property ${\mathbf{A}}^2=1$ ---
• On the role of complex phases in the quantum statistics of weak measurements
• How weak values emerge in joint measurements on cloned quantum systems
• Full counting statistics of weak measurement
• Weak value amplification in a shot-noise limited interferometer
• Interferences in quantum eraser reveal geometric phases in modular and weak values
• Weak measurements and the joint estimation of phase and phase diffusion
• Estimation of a quantum interaction parameter using weak measurements: Theory and experiment
• Observing trajectories with weak measurements in quantum systems in the semiclassical regime
• Entanglement amplification via local weak measurements
• Unifying theory of quantum state estimation using past and future information
• Implementing general measurements on linear optical and solid-state qubits
• Observation of non-classical correlations in sequential measurements of photon polarization
• Implementing generalized measurements with superconducting qubits
• Local measurement uncertainties impose a limit on non-local quantum correlations
• Experimental evaluation of non-classical correlations between measurement outcomes and target observable in a quantum measurement
• Extending Quantum Probability from Real Axis to Complex Plane
• A Generalized framework of weak value amplification in path interference of polarized light for the enhancement of all possible polarization anisotropy effects
• Enhanced Probing of Fermion Interaction Using Weak Value Amplification
• Characterization of measurement uncertainties using the correlations between local outcomes obtained from maximally entangled pairs
• Uncertainty limits of the information exchange between a quantum system and an external meter
• Interferometric weak value of polarization observable and differential Jones matrix algebra
• Experimental investigation of the relation between measurement uncertainties and non-local quantum correlations
• Extension of the input-output relation for a Michelson interferometer to arbitrary coherent-state light sources: --- Gravitational-wave detector and weak-value amplification ---
• Re-interpretations of an experiment on the back-action in a weak measurement