Enhanced on-chip phase measurement by inverse weak value amplification

Abstract

Optical interferometry plays an essential role in precision metrology such as in gravitational wave detection, gyroscopes, and environmental sensing. Weak value amplification enables reaching the shot-noise-limit of sensitivity, which is difficult for most optical sensors, by amplifying the interferometric signal without amplifying certain technical noises. We implement a generalized form of weak value amplification on an integrated photonic platform with a multi-mode interferometer. Our results pave the way for a more sensitive, robust, and compact platform for measuring phase, which can be adapted to fields such as coherent communications and the quantum domain. In this work, we show a 7 dB signal enhancement in our weak value device over a standard Mach-Zehnder interferometer with equal detected optical power, as well as frequency measurements with 2 kHz sensitivity by adding a ring resonator.