Sensing microscopic noise events by frequent quantum measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method using frequent quantum measurements to detect microscopic noise events affecting continuous variables, demonstrated with photons in a noisy channel, revealing noise statistics and enhancing quantum sensing capabilities.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel experimental approach combining frequent measurements and the quantum Zeno effect to unravel microscopic noise events in continuous quantum systems.

Findings

Successfully recorded full noise statistics from photons

Demonstrated noise sensing via polarization measurements

Showed robustness of photons as quantum noise carriers

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a general method allowing us to unravel microscopic noise events that affect a continuous quantum variable. Such unraveling is achieved by frequent measurements of a discrete variable coupled to the continuous one. The experimental realization involves photons traversing a noisy channel. There, their polarization, whose coupling to the photons spatial wavepacket is subjected to stochastic noise, is frequently measured in the quantum Zeno regime. The measurements not only preserve the polarization state, but also enable the recording of the full noise statistics from the spatially-resolved detection of the photons emerging from the channel. This method proves the possibility of employing photons as quantum noise sensors and robust carriers of information.