Quantum limits to lossy optical interferometry
Bruno M. Escher, R. L. de Matos Filho, L. Davidovich · 2010
An open question in optical interferometry is what is the fundamental quantum limit in the presence of photon losses. This question is addressed in the present paper, by finding an analytical lower bound for the uncertainty in the phase shift estimation, which implies, for any state of light, and even for arbitrarily small losses, that this uncertainty scales asymptotically with the number of photons at best as the shot noise.