Quantum estimation of Kerr nonlinearity in driven-dissipative systems

Abstract

We mainly investigate the quantum measurement of Kerr nonlinearity in the driven-dissipative system. Without the dissipation, the measurement precision of the nonlinearity parameter $\chi$ scales as "super-Heisenberg scaling" $1/N^2$ with $N$ being the total average number of particles (photons) due to the nonlinear generator. Here, we find that "super-Heisenberg scaling" $1/N^{3/2}$ can also be obtained by choosing a proper interrogation time. In the steady state, the "super-Heisenberg scaling" $1/N^{3/2}$ can only be achieved when the nonlinearity parameter is close to 0 in the case of the single-photon loss and the one-photon driving or the two-photon driving. The "super-Heisenberg scaling" disappears with the increase of the strength of the nonlinearity. When the system suffers from the two-photon loss in addition to the single-photon loss, the optimal measurement precision will not appear at the nonlinearity $\chi=0$ in the case of the one-photon driving. Counterintuitively, in the case of the two-photon driving we find that it is not the case that the higher the two-photon loss, the lower the measurement precision. It means that the measurement precision of $\chi$ can be improved to some extent by increasing the two-photon loss.