Gravitational acceleration estimation with a nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer
Leili Esmaeilifar, Timothy C. Ralph · Journal of the Optical Society of America B · 2021
We investigate the use of a nonlinear optical interferometer to estimate local gravitational acceleration. We study a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) in an optical fountain configuration where a Kerr nonlinear medium is placed in the arms of the interferometer. This configuration allows the parameter estimation to exceed the standard Heisenberg limit of a linear interferometer. Compared to previous studies, we argue that this interferometer configuration is better posed and achieves improved precision for similar scale and pump powers.