Quantum-enhanced interferometry with large heralded photon-number states

Abstract

Quantum phenomena such as entanglement can improve fundamental limits on the sensitivity of a measurement probe. In optical interferometry, a probe consisting of N entangled photons provides up to a N−−√ enhancement in phase sensitivity compared to a classical probe of the same energy. Here, we employ high-gain parametric down-conversion sources and photon-number-resolving detectors to perform interferometry with heralded quantum probes of sizes up to N = 8 (i.e. measuring up to 16-photon coincidences). Our probes are created by injecting heralded photon-number states into an interferometer, and in principle provide quantum-enhanced phase sensitivity even in the presence of significant optical loss. Our work paves the way toward quantum-enhanced interferometry using large entangled photonic states.