Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Physics

Advisor

Christopher C. Gerry

Committee Members

Mark Hillery

Janos Bergou

Lev Deych

Paul Alsing

Christopher Gerry

Subject Categories

Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics | Optics | Quantum Physics

Keywords

Quantum Optics, Interferometry, Quantum Metrology, Quantum State Engineering, Entanglement, Phase Estimation

Abstract

We highlight some of our research done in the fields of quantum optical interferometry and quantum state engineering. We discuss the body of work for which our research is predicated, as well as discuss some of the fundamental tenants of the theory of phase estimation. We do this in the context of quantum optical interferometry where our primary interest lies in the calculation of the quantum Fisher information as it has been shown that the minimum phase uncertainty obtained, the quantum Cramer-Rao bound, is saturated by parity-based detection methods. We go on to show that the phase uncertainty one obtains through the quantum Fisher information is in agreement with the error propagation calculus when using parity as a detection observable. We also introduce a technique through which one can generate new non-classical single and two-mode states of light known as photon catalysis. This involves a projective measurement made at the output of a beam splitter with variable transmittance, for 'l' photons, where our initial state is a tensor product between a single-mode field state and a number state comprised of 'q' photons. We close the paper with a discussion on a proposed state-projective scheme for generating pair coherent states using existing and readily available technology.

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