Supersensitivity of Kerr phase estimation with two-mode squeezed vacuum states

Abstract

We analytically investigate the sensitivity of Kerr nonlinear phase estimation in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with two-mode squeezed vacuum states. We find that such a metrological scheme could access a sensitivity scaling over the Boixo \emph{et al.}'s generalized sensitivity limit [S. Boixo \emph{et al}., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{98}, 090401 (2007)], which is saturable with celebrated NOON states. We also show that parity detection is a quasioptimal measurement which can nearly saturate the quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound in the aforementioned situation. Moreover, we further clarify the supersensitive performance observed in the above scheme is due to the restriction of Boixo \emph{et al}.'s generalized sensitivity limit (BGSL) to probe states with fixed photon numbers. To conquer this problem, we generalize the BGSL into the case with probe states of a fluctuating number of photons, to which our scheme belongs.