Enhanced weak value amplification via photon recycling

Abstract

Weak value amplification (WVA) is a powerful technique in quantum metrology, enabling the detection of small signals that are typically challenging to measure. However, conventional WVA methods often suffer from low post-selection probabilities, which diminish the practical advantages of amplified signals. In this work, we propose and demonstrate an improved WVA scheme using photon recycling, where non-post-selected photons are reused in additional amplification processes. By implementing this recycling-enhanced method with effectively three photon recycling rounds, we achieve improvement of a factor of 1.66 ± 0.01 in post-selection probability and 1.56 ± 0.01 in amplification of the weak value. Additionally, we simulate the impact of optical path losses on the WVA probability. This allows us to determine the saturation limits of our photon recycling approach. This work provides a pathway toward more efficient WVA, significantly advancing precision measurement capabilities in quantum metrology and related sensing applications.