Squeezing-enhanced accurate differential sensing under large phase noise

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that spin-squeezed states can improve differential phase measurement sensitivity in atom interferometers under large phase noise, surpassing the standard quantum limit with robust estimation methods.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical protocol using spin-squeezed states and ellipse fitting for noise-robust differential sensing, achieving sensitivities below the SQL and eliminating bias.

Findings

Sensitivity scales as N^{-2/3} with optimal squeezing

Ellipse fitting provides bias-free differential phase estimates

Protocol outperforms classical sensors in noisy environments

Abstract

Atom interferometers are reaching sensitivities fundamentally constrained by quantum fluctuations. A main challenge is to integrate entanglement into quantum sensing protocols to enhance precision while ensuring robustness against noise and systematics. Here, we theoretically investigate differential phase measurements with two atom interferometers using spin-squeezed states, accounting for common-mode phase noise spanning the full $2\pi$ range. We estimate the differential signal using model-free ellipse fitting, a robust method requiring no device calibration and resilient to additional noise sources. Our results show that spin-squeezing enables sensitivities below the standard quantum limit. Specifically, we identify optimal squeezed states that minimize the differential phase variance, scaling as $N^{-2/3}$, while eliminating bias inherent in ellipse fitting methods. We benchmark our protocol against the Cram\'er-Rao bound and compare it with hybrid methods that incorporate auxiliary classical sensors. Our findings provide a pathway to robust and high-precision atom interferometry, in realistic noisy environments and using readily available states and estimation methods.