Gaussian-state interferometry with passive and active elements

We address the precision of optical interferometers fed by quantum and semiclassical Gaussian states involving passive and/or active elements, such as beam splitters, photodetectors, and optical parametric amplifiers. We first address the ultimate bounds to precision by discussing the behavior of the quantum Fisher information. We then consider photodetection at the output and calculate the sensitivity of the interferometers taking into account the nonunit quantum efficiency of the detectors. Our results show that in the ideal case of photon number detectors with unit quantum efficiency the best configuration is the symmetric one, namely, a passive (active) interferometer with a passive (active) detection stage: in this case one may achieve Heisenberg scaling of sensitivity by suitably optimizing over Gaussian states at the input. On the other hand, in the realistic case of detectors with nonunit quantum efficiency, the performances of the passive scheme are unavoidably degraded, whereas detectors involving optical parametric amplifiers allow us to fully compensate for the presence of loss in the detection stage, thus restoring the Heisenberg scaling.