English

Quantum Absorbance Estimation and the Beer-Lambert Law

Quantum Physics 2020-08-19 v1 Optics

Abstract

The utility of transmission measurement has made it a target for quantum enhanced measurement strategies. Here we find if the length of an absorbing object is a controllable variable, then via the Beer-Lambert law, classical strategies can be optimised to reach within 83% of the absolute quantum limit. Our analysis includes experimental losses, detector noise, and input states with arbitrary photon statistics. We derive optimal operating conditions for both classical and quantum sources, and observe experimental agreement with theory using Fock and thermal states.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1912.05870,
  title  = {Quantum Absorbance Estimation and the Beer-Lambert Law},
  author = {Euan J. Allen and Javier Sabines-Chesterking and Alex McMillan and Siddarth K. Joshi and Peter S. Turner and Jonathan C. F. Matthews},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.05870},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

12 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:43:53.455Z