Phase estimation from atom position measurements

Year: 2011

Authors: Chwedenczuk J., Piazza F., Smerzi A.

Autors Affiliation: Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Poland; INO-CNR, BEC Center, Via Sommarive 14, 38123 Povo, Trento, Italy

Abstract: We study the measurement of the positions of atoms as a means of estimating the relative phase between two Bose-Einstein condensates. We consider N bosonic atoms released from a double-well trap, which form an interference pattern; we show that the measurement of the position of N atoms has a sensitivity that saturates the bound set by the quantum Fisher information, and allows for estimation at the Heisenberg limit of precision. Phase estimation through the measurement of the center of mass of the interference pattern can also provide sub-shot-noise sensitivity. Finally, we study the effect of an overlap of the two clouds on the estimation precision when Mach-Zehnder interferometry is performed in a double well. We find that a nonzero overlap of the clouds strongly reduces the phase sensitivity.

Journal/Review: NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS

Volume: 13      Pages from: 065023  to: 065023

More Information: This work was supported (JCh) by the Foundation for Polish Science through the TEAM project cofinanced by the EU European Regional Development Fund.
KeyWords: quantum interferometry; Bose-Einstein condensate; quantum; interferometry; entanglement
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/13/6/065023

Citations: 11
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