Practical scheme for the optimal measuremnet in quantum interferometric devices

Abstract

We apply a Kennedy-type detection scheme, which was originally proposed for a binary communications system, to interferometric sensing devices. We show that the minimum detectable perturbation of the proposed system reaches the ultimate precision bound which is predicted by Neyman-Pearson hypothesis testing. To provide concrete examples, we apply our interferometric scheme to phase shift detection by using coherent and squeezed probe fields.

4 pages and 3 figures