Continuous phase amplification with a Sagnac interferometer

ORAL

Abstract

We describe a weak value inspired phase amplification technique in a Sagnac interferometer. We monitor the relative phase between two paths of a slightly misaligned interferometer by measuring the average position of a split-Gaussian mode in the dark port. Although we monitor only the dark port, we show that the signal varies linearly with phase and that we can obtain similar sensitivity to balanced homodyne detection. We derive the source of the amplification both with classical wave optics and as an inverse weak value.

Authors

  • Nathan Williams

    University of Rochester

  • David Starling

    University of Rochester

  • Ben Dixon

    University of Rochester

  • Andrew Jordan

    University of Rochester

  • John Howell

    University of Rochester