Improving quantum metrology protocols with programmable photonic circuits

TL;DR

This paper explores deterministic quantum metrology protocols using programmable photonic circuits with Jaynes-Cummings and Kerr interactions, optimizing for maximum advantage and minimal interaction time, and compares their scalability and measurement strategies.

Contribution

It introduces and compares programmable interaction strategies for quantum metrology, highlighting their advantages over continuous methods and analyzing their scalability and measurement optimization.

Findings

Programmable interactions outperform continuous operations in metrological advantage.

Kerr interactions decrease interaction time with photon number, aiding scalability.

Jaynes-Cummings interactions see increased interaction time with photon number.

Abstract

Photonic quantum metrology enables the measurement of physical parameters with precision surpassing classical limits by using quantum states of light. However, generating states providing a large metrological advantage is hard because standard probabilistic methods suffer from low generation rates. Deterministic protocols using non-linear interactions offer a path to overcome this problem, but they are currently limited by the errors introduced during the interaction time. Thus, finding strategies to minimize the interaction time of these non-linearities is still a relevant question. In this work, we introduce and compare different deterministic strategies based on continuous and programmable Jaynes-Cummings and Kerr-type interactions, aiming to maximize the metrological advantage while minimizing the interaction time. We find that programmable interactions provide a larger metrological advantage than continuous operations at the expense of slightly larger interaction times. We show that while for Jaynes-Cummings non-linearities the interaction time grows with the photon number, for Kerr-type ones it decreases, favoring the scalability to big photon numbers. Finally, we also optimize different measurement strategies for the deterministically generated states based on photon-counting and homodyne detection.