Photon counting measurement has been regarded as the optimal measurement scheme for phase estimation in the squeezed-state interferometry, since the classical Fisher information equals to the quantum Fisher information and scales as $bar{n}^2$ for gi
ven input number of photons $bar{n}$. However, it requires photon-number-resolving detectors with a large enough resolution threshold. Here we show that a collection of $N$-photon detection events for $N$ up to the resolution threshold $sim bar{n}$ can result in the ultimate estimation precision beyond the shot-noise limit. An analytical formula has been derived to obtain the best scaling of the Fisher information.
Squeezed spin states possess unique quantum correlation or entanglement that are of significant promises for advancing quantum information processing and quantum metrology. In recent back to back publications [C. Gross textit{et al, Nature} textbf{46
4}, 1165 (2010) and Max F. Riedel textit{et al, Nature} textbf{464}, 1170 (2010)], reduced spin fluctuations are observed leading to spin squeezing at -8.2dB and -2.5dB respectively in two-component atomic condensates exhibiting one-axis-twisting interactions (OAT). The noise reduction limit for the OAT interaction scales as $propto 1/{N^{2/3}}$, which for a condensate with $Nsim 10^3$ atoms, is about 100 times below standard quantum limit. We present a scheme using repeated Rabi pulses capable of transforming the OAT spin squeezing into the two-axis-twisting type, leading to Heisenberg limited noise reduction $propto 1/N$, or an extra 10-fold improvement for $Nsim 10^3$.
Including collisional decoherence explicitly, phase sensitivity for estimating effective scattering strength $chi$ of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate is derived analytically. With a measurement of spin operator $hat{J}_{x}$, we find that the
optimal sensitivity depends on initial coherent spin state. It degrades by a factor of $(2gamma)^{1/3}$ below super-Heisenberg limit $propto 1/N^{3/2}$ for particle number $N$ and the dephasing rate $1<!<gamma<N^{3/4}$. With a $hat{J}_y$ measurement, our analytical results confirm that the phase $phi=chi tsim 0$ can be detected at the limit even in the presence of the dephasing.
Based upon standard angular momentum theory, we develop a framework to investigate polarization squeezing and multipartite entanglement of a quantum light field. Both mean polarization and variances of the Stokes parameters are obtained analytically,
with which we study recent observation of triphoton states [L. K. Shalm {it et al}, Nature textbf{457}, 67 (2009)]. Our results show that the appearance of maximally entangled NOON states accompanies with a flip of mean polarization and can be well understood in terms of quantum Fisher information.
We investigate spin squeezing of a two-mode boson system with a Josephson coupling. An exact relation between the squeezing and the single-particle coherence at the maximal-squeezing time is discovered, which provides a more direct way to measure the
squeezing by readout the coherence in atomic interference experiments. We prove explicitly that the strongest squeezing is along the $J_z$ axis, indicating the appearance of atom number-squeezed state. Power laws of the strongest squeezing and the optimal coupling with particle number $N$ are obtained based upon a wide range of numerical simulations.
