Improving the loss threshold for quantum advantage in photonic sensors by complete photon counting

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30761v1
• Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2026 18:01:11 GMT
• Title: Improving the loss threshold for quantum advantage in photonic sensors by complete photon counting
• Abstract summary: Photon-number-resolving detection (PNRD) based on transition-edge sensors (TESs)<n>Subject to internal and external losses of approximately 25 % and 45 %, respectively, we observe an unconditional violation of the shot-noise limit by $2.37 pm 0.11$ dB.<n>This translates to a 44 % enhancement in estimation precision over conventional click-detection strategies.
• Score: 3.871450785156579
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Tolerance to imperfections is a defining performance criterion for quantum sensors. The threshold for achieving a quantum advantage depends on the input state, sensor configuration, detection scheme, and, critically for optical platforms, photon loss. We consider a nonlinear interferometer in which two gain-optimized parametric nonlinear optical processes couple the state to the internal sensor and subsequently mix the reference and sensor beams. We demonstrate that measuring the full photon-number output statistics of this setup yields marked improvements in the loss threshold. Using photon-number-resolving detection (PNRD) based on transition-edge sensors (TESs), we experimentally reconstruct the joint photon-number statistics at the interferometer output. Subject to internal and external losses of approximately 25 % and 45 %, respectively -- and without any post-selection or loss correction -- we observe an unconditional violation of the shot-noise limit by $2.37 \pm 0.11$ dB. This translates to a 44 % enhancement in estimation precision over conventional click-detection strategies. We verify this performance by evaluating the classical Fisher information against both an analytical model of the joint photon-number distribution and the raw measured statistics. Ultimately, our results demonstrate that combining nonlinear interferometry with PNRD unlocks metrological information fundamentally inaccessible to click detectors, establishing a clear path toward practical, quantum-enhanced sensing under realistic loss conditions.

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