The optimal strategy of two-photon interferometric sensing in diverse noise environments

TL;DR

This paper investigates the noise sensitivity of two-photon interferometry techniques, identifying optimal detection strategies for different noise conditions to enhance quantum sensing performance.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of HOM and N00N state interferometry under noise, proposing optimal detection methods for practical quantum sensing.

Findings

HOM interference is insensitive to phase noise in both detection modes.

N00N state interference is sensitive to phase noise in both detection modes.

Spectrally resolved detection outperforms non-resolved detection, especially beyond biphoton coherence time.

Abstract

Quantum sensing based on two-photon interferometry manifests quantum superiority beyond the classical precision limit. However, this superiority is usually diminished inevitably by the noise. Here, we analyze the sensitivity of two typical two-photon interferometries to the noise, that is, Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) and N00N state interferometry. It is found that HOM (N00N state) interference, which depends on the biphoton frequency difference (sum), is insensitive (sensitive) to the phase noise in both the manners of spectrally non-resolved and resolved detections in practice, suggesting their potential applications of sensing for different noise scenarios. Furthermore, spectrally resolved detection outperforms spectrally non-resolved one for the two interferometries, especially for the scope that exceeds the coherence time of biphotons. The findings provide an optimal strategy for the practical applications of two-photon interferometric sensing in diverse noise environments.