Abstract
In a conventional interferometer one shines light only into one interferometer input port while the second input port is unexcited. This allows vacuum states to enter the unexcited port, leading to imperfect correlation between both the amplitude and the phase fluctuations of the light in the upper and lower interferometer arms. This, in turn, limits the interferometer sensitivity regardless of its operating panel (its arm-length difference, which we in the following will translate into a phase shift θ). The sensitivity of an ideal conventional interferometer is . That is, a phase shift of radians can be detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of unity by using N photons. Since N typically is a large number, it is tempting to try to find some scheme approaching the fundamental (Heisenberg) limit of phase-shift detection, 1/N. One way of doing that is to inject squeezed vacuum into the unexcited input port of the interferometer.1
© 1994 Optical Society of America
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