Abstract

We consider different types of technical noise in an optical context and show that weak-value amplification techniques (using a small fraction of photons) compare favourably with standard techniques (using all of them). We measure small beam deflections of an optical beam by monitoring the dark port in a Sagnac interferometer (weak-value technique) or by focusing the entire beam onto a split detector (standard technique). In all cases, the weak-value technique performs favourable in precision respect to the standard technique.

© 2015 Optical Society of America