Realization of ultra-small stress birefringence detection with weak-value amplification technique
Yongsheng Wang, Shizhen Chen, Shuangchun Wen, Hailu Luo
Abstract
How to realize the detection of tiny birefringence is an important but challenging issue for investigations and applications in optics. In weak measurements, weak-value amplification has been widely applied to the precise estimation of time delay. Here, we show that the linear amplification in weak measurements has the potential to outperform standard weak-value amplification for ultra-small parameter characterization. The higher measurement accuracy in the linear amplification enables us to achieve a measurement of stress-induced birefringence with a high resolution of 5×10−10. Compared with existing methods, the accuracy based on weak measurements for birefringence detection can improve two orders of magnitude. Our method may have important applications in a variety of fields involving the precise measurement of time delay or birefringence.