No Arabic abstract
We present the experimental implementation of simultaneous spatial multimode demultiplexing as a distance measurement tool. We first show a simple and intuitive derivation of the Fisher information in the presence of Poissonian noise. We then estimate the distance between two incoherent beams in both directions of the transverse plane, and find a perfect accordance with theoretical prediction, given a proper calibration of the demultiplexer. We find that, even though sensitivity is limited by the cross-talks between channels, we can perform measurements in 2 dimensions much beyond Rayleigh limit with a large dynamic.
Acquiring precise information about the mode content of a laser is critical for multiplexed optical communications, optical imaging with active wave-front control, and quantum-limited interferometric measurements. Hologram-based mode decomposition devices allow a fast, direct measurement of the mode content, but they have limited precision due to cross-coupling between modes. Here we report the first proof-of-principle demonstration of mode decomposition with a meta-surface, resulting in significantly enhanced precision. A mode-weight fluctuation of 0.6ppm (-62 dB) can be measured with 1 second of averaging at a Fourier frequency of 80 Hz, an improvement on the state-of-the-art by more than three orders of magnitude. The improvement is attributable to the reduction in cross-coupling enabled by the exceptional phase accuracy of the meta-surface. We show a systematic study of the limiting sources of noise, and we show that there is a promising path towards complete mode decomposition with similar precision.
We demonstrate a thermal infrared (IR) detector based on an ultra-high-quality-factor (Q) whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microtoroidal silica resonator, and investigate its performance to detect IR radiation at 10 micron wavelength. The bandwidth and the sensitivity of the detector are dependent on the power of a probe laser and the detuning between the probe laser and the resonance frequency of the resonator. The microtoroid IR sensor achieved a noise-equivalent-power (NEP) of 7.46 nW, corresponding to IR intensity of 0.095 mW/cm^2
We consider the problem of estimating the spatial separation between two mutually incoherent point light sources using the super-resolution imaging technique based on spatial mode demultiplexing with noisy detectors. We show that in the presence of noise the resolution of the measurement is limited by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the minimum resolvable spatial separation has a characteristic dependence of $sim$SNR$^{-1/2}$. Several detection techniques, including direct photon counting, as well as homodyne and heterodyne detection are considered.
We show that a 1.13-GHz repetition rate optical pulse train with 0.70 fs high-frequency timing jitter (integration bandwidth of 17.5 kHz - 10 MHz, where the measurement instrument-limited noise floor contributes 0.41 fs in 10 MHz bandwidth) can be directly generated from a free-running, single-mode diode-pumped Yb:KYW laser mode-locked by single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-coated mirrors. To our knowledge, this is the lowest timing jitter optical pulse train with the GHz repetition rate ever measured. If this pulse train is used for direct sampling of 565-MHz signals (Nyquist frequency of the pulse train), the demonstrated jitter level corresponds to the projected effective-number-of-bit (ENOB) of 17.8, which is much higher than the thermal noise limit of 50-ohm load resistance (~14 bits).
Continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs) provide a valuable model for quantum transport, universal quantum computation and quantum spatial search, among others. Recently, the empowering role of new degrees of freedom in the Hamiltonian generator of CTQWs, which are the complex phases along the loops of the underlying graph, was acknowledged for its interest in optimizing or suppressing transport on specific topologies. We argue that the quantum-classical distance, a figure of merit which was introduced to capture the difference in dynamics between a CTQW and its classical, stochastic counterpart, guides the optimization of parameters of the Hamiltonian to achieve better quantum transport on cycle graphs and spatial search to the quantum speed limit without an oracle on complete graphs, the latter also implying fast uniform mixing. We compare the variations of this quantity with the 1-norm of coherence and the Inverse Participation Ratio, showing that the quantum-classical distance is linked to both, but in a topology-dependent relation, which is key to spot the most interesting quantum evolution in each case.