From Linear Optical Quantum Computing to Heisenberg-Limited Interferometry

The working principles of linear optical quantum computing are based on photodetection, namely, projective measurements. The use of photodetection can provide efficient nonlinear interactions between photons at the single-photon level, which is technically problematic otherwise. We report an application of such a technique to prepare quantum correlations as an important resource for Heisenberg-limited optical interferometry, where the sensitivity of phase measurements can be improved beyond the usual shot-noise limit. Furthermore, using such nonlinearities, optical quantum nondemolition measurements can now be carried out at the single-photon level.