In a conventional atomic interferometer employing N atoms, the phase sensitivity is at the standard quantum limit: 1/√N. Using spin-squeezing, the sensitivity can be increased, either by lowering the quantum noise or via phase amplification, or a combination thereof. Here, we show how to increase the sensitivity, to the Heisenberg limit of 1/N, while increasing the quantum noise by √N, thereby suppressing by the same factor the effect of excess noise. The proposed protocol makes use of a Schroedinger Cat (SC) state representing a mesoscopic superposition of two collective states of N atoms, behaving as a single entity with an N-fold increase in Compton frequency. The resulting N-fold phase magnification is revealed by using atomic state detection instead of collective state detection
|