Active polarization stabilization of fields in an optical fiber for protective measurements

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an active polarization stabilization method in optical fibers for quantum measurements, using photon counts for feedback, leading to improved stability and measurement precision in protective quantum measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a photon-count-based feedback stabilization technique for quantum polarization in optical fibers, enhancing measurement stability over classical methods.

Findings

Increased number of Zeno measurement stages from 9 to 13.

Higher signal levels and reduced background noise.

Decreased measurement uncertainty.

Abstract

We have performed Zeno protective measurements of quantum polarization states by coupling the polarization to a temporal pointer (arrival time) in a birefringent optical fiber. It is necessary to actively stabilize the polarization, and we do this by using the signal photon counts themselves as the error signal in a feedback loop. We compare these measurements to a stabilization scheme using a classical reference beam as the error signal. The method using photon counts has higher signal levels and significantly reduced background. These improvements allow us to increase the number of Zeno stages in our measurements from 9 to 13, with a corresponding decrease in the measurement uncertainty.