Photon-Pair Advantage for Dissipative Parameter Estimation in Whispering-Gallery-Mode Interferometers

Abstract

We study the estimation of detuning and intrinsic loss in a lossy whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonator located in a balanced Mach–Zehnder interferometer. We use indistinguishable photon pairs and coherent-state probes. We show that using indistinguishable photon pairs can provide higher Quantum Fisher Information (QFI) of dissipative parameters, such as intrinsic loss, at resonance away from critical coupling. Taking into account all photon-loss outcomes, we obtain analytical QFI expressions and compare photon-pair and coherent-state probe results when they have the same mean photon number. For estimating the round-trip amplitude transmission at resonance and away from critical coupling, the photon-pair probe gives a higher QFI than the coherent-state probe, and photon-number-resolved detection saturates this QFI. This advantage is due to the photon-loss statistics and it is still accessible for a typical overcoupled condition after averaging over fluctuations of the unresolved detuning. We identify the limits of this advantage: phase doubling does not improve resonant detuning estimation, and coincidence-only detection is inefficient close to a zero transmission. These results identify the cases in which photon pairs can be useful for absorption and pump–probe WGM sensing.