Zeptosecond-scale single-photon gyroscope

Abstract

This paper presents an all-fiber telecom-range optical gyroscope employing a spontaneous parametric down conversion crystal to produce ultra-low intensity thermal light by tracing-out one of the heralded photons. The prototype exhibits a detection limit on photon delay measurements of $249$ zs over a $72$ s averaging time and 26 zs in differential delay measurements at $t=10^4$ s averaging. The detection scheme proves to be the most resource-efficient possible, saturating $>99.5\%$ of the Cram\'er-Rao bound. These results are groundbreaking in the context of low-photon regime quantum metrology, paving the way to novel experimental configurations to bridge quantum optics with special or general relativity.