Quantum interferometry with binary-outcome measurements in the presence of phase diffusion

Abstract: Optimal measurement scheme with an efficient data processing is important in quantum-enhanced interferometry. Here we prove that for a general binary outcome measurement, the simplest data processing based on inverting the average signal can saturate the Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound. This idea is illustrated by binary outcome homodyne detection, even-odd photon counting (i.e., parity detection), and zero-nonzero photon counting that have achieved super-resolved interferometric fringe and shot-noise limited sensitivity in coherent-light Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The roles of phase diffusion are investigated in these binary outcome measurements. We find that the diffusion degrades the fringe resolution and the achievable phase sensitivity. Our analytical results confirm that the zero-nonzero counting can produce a slightly better sensitivity than that of the parity detection, as demonstrated in a recent experiment.