Entangled Fock states for Robust Quantum Optical Metrology, Imaging, and Sensing

Huver, Sean D.; Wildfeuer, Christoph F.; Dowling, Jonathan P.

Entangled Fock states for Robust Quantum Optical Metrology, Imaging, and Sensing

Authors

Huver, Sean D.

Wildfeuer, Christoph F.

Dowling, Jonathan P.

Description

We propose a class of path-entangled photon Fock states for robust quantum optical metrology, imaging, and sensing in the presence of loss. We model propagation loss with beam-splitters and derive a reduced density matrix formalism from which we examine how photon loss affects coherence. It is shown that particular entangled number states, which contain a special superposition of photons in both arms of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, are resilient to environmental decoherence. We demonstrate an order of magnitude greater visibility with loss, than possible with N00N states. We also show that the effectiveness of a detection scheme is related to super-resolution visibility.
4 pages, 5 figures, extended introduction and minor revisions