Precision phase measurement in Mach-Zehnder interferometer with three-photon by using a weak coherent and a squeezed vacuum state

Abstract: We quantitatively investigate phase measurement in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), which is injected with a weak coherent and a squeezed vacuum generated from a spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The measured three-photon coincidence in this system is quantified as a function of a ratio between the amplitude of the coherent state and the squeezed parameter of squeezed vacuum when the photon number is detected at one output of MZI. It shows that the phase sensitivity reaches the Heisenberg limit when an optimal ratio is chosen. This may introduce one approach to quantify phase sensitivity in precision phase measurement.