Instrument development

The ability to perform high-precision optical measurements is paramount in science and engineering. Laser interferometry enables interaction-free sensing with a precision ultimately limited by shot noise. Quantum optical sensors can surpass this limit but single- or multiphoton schemes are challenged by low experimental sampling rates, while squeezed-light approaches require complex optical setups and sophisticated time gating. Here, we introduce a simple method that infers optical phase shifts through standard intensity measurements while still maintaining the quantum advantage in the measurement precision. Capitalizing on the robustness and high sampling rates of our device, we implement a quantum optical microphone in the audio band. Its performance is benchmarked against a classical laser microphone in a standardized medically approved speech-recognition test on 45 subjects. We find that quantum-recorded words improve the speech-recognition threshold by $-0.57{\mathrm{dB}}_{\mathrm{SPL}}$, thus making the quantum advantage audible. Not only do these results open the door toward applications in quantum nonlinear interferometry but they also show that quantum phenomena can be experienced by humans.
doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.020358