Overcoming inefficient detection in sub-shot-noise absorption measurement and imaging

Opt Express. 2019 Mar 18;27(6):7868-7885. doi: 10.1364/OE.27.007868.

Abstract

Photon-number squeezing and correlations enable measurement of absorption with an accuracy exceeding that of the shot-noise limit. However, sub-shot noise imaging and sensing based on these methods require high detection efficiency, which can be a serious obstacle if measurements are carried out in "difficult" spectral ranges. We show that this problem can be overcome through the phase-sensitive amplification before detection. Here we propose an experimental scheme of sub-shot-noise imaging with tolerance to detection losses.