Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026

09:23
Quantum State Engineering of Light with Continuous-wave Optical Parametric Oscillators
Published on: May 30, 2014
High-NOON states by mixing quantum and classical light
Itai Afek1, Oron Ambar, Yaron Silberberg
1Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Summary
Quantum mechanics enables precision measurements using entangled NOON states for enhanced phase measurements. Researchers achieved super-resolution with five entangled photons, surpassing classical limits.
Area of Science:
- Quantum optics
- Quantum mechanics applications
Background:
- Quantum mechanics offers ultimate precision limits for measurements.
- Multiphoton entangled states, specifically NOON states, enhance optical phase measurement precision.
- The advantage of NOON states increases with the number of photons.
Purpose of the Study:
- To generate and utilize high-NOON states (N=5) for super-resolving phase measurements.
- To demonstrate a scalable approach for creating entangled states.
- To compare the precision of quantum-enhanced measurements with classical methods.
Main Methods:
- Generating high-NOON states (N=5) via multiphoton interference.
- Interfering quantum down-converted light with a classical coherent state.
- Implementing a scalable approach for state generation.
Main Results:
- Successfully produced super-resolving phase measurements using up to five entangled photons.
- Achieved measurement visibility exceeding that of classical light.
- Demonstrated an inherently scalable method for generating entangled states.
Conclusions:
- High-NOON states provide a pathway to ultimate precision measurements in optics.
- The demonstrated method is scalable and offers advantages over classical techniques.
- Entangled photons significantly enhance phase measurement resolution and precision.
Related Concept Videos
The Wave Nature of Light
The nature of light has been a subject of inquiry since antiquity. In the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton performed experiments with lenses and prisms and was able to demonstrate that white light consists of the individual colors of the rainbow combined together. Newton explained his optics findings in terms of a "corpuscular" view of light, in which light was composed of streams of extremely tiny particles traveling at high speeds according to Newton's laws of motion.
Emission Spectra
When solids, liquids, or condensed gases are heated sufficiently, they radiate some of the excess energy as light. Photons produced in this manner have a range of energies, and thereby produce a continuous spectrum in which an unbroken series of wavelengths is present.
The Bohr Model
Following the work of Ernest Rutherford and his colleagues in the early twentieth century, the picture of atoms consisting of tiny dense nuclei surrounded by lighter and even tinier electrons continually moving about the nucleus was well established. This picture was called the planetary model since it pictured the atom as a miniature “solar system” with the electrons orbiting the nucleus like planets orbiting the sun. The simplest atom is hydrogen, consisting of a single proton as the nucleus...
The de Broglie Wavelength
In the macroscopic world, objects that are large enough to be seen by the naked eye follow the rules of classical physics. A billiard ball moving on a table will behave like a particle; it will continue traveling in a straight line unless it collides with another ball, or it is acted on by some other force, such as friction. The ball has a well-defined position and velocity or well-defined momentum, p = mv, which is defined by mass m and velocity v at any given moment. This is the typical...
The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom
Shortly after de Broglie published his ideas that the electron in a hydrogen atom could be better thought of as being a circular standing wave instead of a particle moving in quantized circular orbits, Erwin Schrödinger extended de Broglie’s work by deriving what is now known as the Schrödinger equation. When Schrödinger applied his equation to hydrogen-like atoms, he was able to reproduce Bohr’s expression for the energy and, thus, the Rydberg formula governing hydrogen spectra. Schrödinger...
Photoelectric Effect
When light of a particular wavelength strikes a metal surface, electrons are emitted. This is called the photoelectric effect. The minimum frequency of light that can cause such emission of electrons is called the threshold frequency, which is specific to the metal. Light with a frequency lower than the threshold frequency, even if it is of high intensity, cannot initiate the emission of electrons. However, when the frequency is higher than the threshold value, the number of electrons ejected...

