How the Result of Counting One Photon Can Turn Out to Be a Value of 8

Abstract

In 1988, Aharonov, Albert, and Vaidman introduced a new paradigm of quantum measurement in a paper which had the unwieldy but provocative title "How the result of a measurement of a component of the spin of a spin-1=2 particle can turn out to be 100." This paradigm, so-called "weak measurement," has since been the subject of widespread theoretical and experimental attention, both for the perspective it offers on quantum reality and for possible applications to precision measurement. Yet almost all of the weak-measurement experiments carried out so far could be alternatively understood in terms of the classical (electro-magnetic wave) theory of optics. Here we present a truly quantum version, the first in which a measurement apparatus deterministically entangles two distinct optical beams, enabling us to experimentally ask a question directly analogous to that of the original proposal: "In a two-arm interferometer containing one photon in total, can the result of a measurement of the photon number in one arm turn out to be greater than 1?" Specifically, we show that a single photon, when properly post-selected, can have an effect equal to that of eight photons: that is, in a system where a single photon has been calibrated to write a nonlinear phase shift of ϕ_0 on a probe beam, we measure phase shifts as large as 8ϕ_0 for appropriately post-selected single photons. This is the first deterministic weak-value experiment in optics which defies classical explanation, and constitutes a realization of our proposal for weak-value amplification (WVA) of the small optical nonlinearity at the single-photon level. It opens up a new regime for the study of entanglement of optical beams, as well as further investigations of the power of WVA for the measurement of small quantities.