Quantum-enhanced time-domain spectroscopy

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Adamou, Dionysis and Hirsch, Lennart and Shields, Taylor and Yoon, Seungjin and Dada, Adetunmise C and Weaver, Jonathan M R and Faccio, Daniele and Peccianti, Marco and Caspani, Lucia and Clerici, Matteo (2025) Quantum-enhanced time-domain spectroscopy. Science Advances, 11 (4). eadt2187. ISSN 2375-2548 (https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt2187)

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Abstract

The time-resolved detection of mid- to far-infrared electric fields absorbed and emitted by molecules is among the most sensitive spectroscopic approaches and has the potential to transform sensing in fields such as security screening, quality control, and medical diagnostics. However, the sensitivity of the standard detection approach, which relies on encoding the far-infrared electric field into amplitude modulation of a visible or near-infrared probe laser pulse, is limited by the shot noise of the latter. This constraint cannot be overcome without using a quantum resource. Here, we show that this constraint can be overcome using a two-mode squeezed state. Quantum-correlated ultrashort pulses, generated by parametric down-conversion, enhance the sensitivity of far-infrared detection beyond the classical limit, achieving a twofold reduction in measured noise. This advancement paves the way for further development of ultrafast quantum metrology, moving toward quantum-enhanced time-resolved electric field spectroscopy with sensitivities beyond the standard quantum limit.

ORCID iDs

Adamou, Dionysis, Hirsch, Lennart, Shields, Taylor, Yoon, Seungjin, Dada, Adetunmise C, Weaver, Jonathan M R, Faccio, Daniele, Peccianti, Marco, Caspani, Lucia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2711-0448 and Clerici, Matteo;
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