Heisenberg-limited metrology via weak-value amplification without using entangled resources

Abstract

Weak-value amplification (WVA) provides a way for amplified detection of a tiny physical signal at the expense of a lower detection probability. Despite this trade-off, due to its robustness against certain types of noise, WVA has advantages over conventional measurements in precision metrology. Moreover, it has been shown that WVA-based metrology can reach the Heisenberg-limit using entangled resources, but preparing macroscopic entangled resources remains challenging. Here we demonstrate a novel WVA scheme based on iterative interactions, achieving the Heisenberg-limited precision scaling without resorting to entanglement. This indicates that the perceived advantages of the entanglement-assisted WVA are in fact due to iterative interactions between each particle of an entangled system and a meter, rather than coming from the entanglement itself. Our work opens a practical pathway for achieving the Heisenberg-limited WVA without using fragile and experimentally-demanding entangled resources.

6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Using entanglement against noise in quantum metrology
• Measuring ultrasmall time delays of light by joint weak measurements
• Weak Value Amplification Can Outperform Conventional Measurement in the Presence of Detector Saturation
• Approaching quantum-limited metrology with imperfect detectors by using weak-value amplification

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Enhancing interferometry using weak value amplification with real weak values
• Association between quantum paradoxes based on weak values and a realistic interpretation of quantum measurements
• Weak-Value Amplification for Longitudinal Phase Measurements Approaching the Shot-Noise Limit Characterized by Allan Variance
• Mitigating Source and Detection Noises in Auto-correlative Weak-Value Amplification
• Approaching the Multiparameter Quantum Cramér-Rao Bound via Classical Correlation and Entangling Measurements