Scheme for the protective measurement of a single photon using a tunable quantum Zeno effect

TL;DR

This paper proposes a scheme for protective measurement of a single photon using a tunable quantum Zeno effect, enabling precise measurement with high survival probability through multiple interaction-protection cycles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method combining weak measurement and quantum Zeno effect for single-photon protective measurement, enhancing measurement accuracy and photon survival.

Findings

The scheme allows multiple interaction-protection steps.

Uncertainty in measurement results can be significantly reduced.

Photon survival probability remains high despite many cycles.

Abstract

This paper presents a proof-of-principle scheme for the protective measurement of a single photon. In this scheme, the photon is looped arbitrarily many times through an optical stage that implements a weak measurement of a polarization observable followed by a strong measurement protecting the state. The ability of this scheme to realize a large number of such interaction-protection steps means that the uncertainty in the measurement result can be drastically reduced while maintaining a sufficient probability for the photon to survive the measurement.