Nonclassical Light and Metrological Power: An Introductory Review

Abstract

In this review, we introduce the notion of quantum nonclassicality of light, and the role of nonclassicality in optical quantum metrology. The first part of the paper focuses on defining and characterizing the notion of nonclassicality and how it may be quantified in radiation fields. Several prominent examples of nonclassical light is also discussed. The second part of the paper looks at quantum metrology through the lens of nonclassicality. We introduce key concepts such as the Quantum Fisher information, the Cram{\'e}r-Rao bound, the standard quantum limit and the Heisenberg limit, and discuss how nonclassical light may be exploited to beat classical limitations in high precision measurements. The discussion here will be largely theoretical, with some references to specific experimental implementations.