Precision metrology of weak measurement with a thermal state pointer

Abstract Quantum metrology is being gradually studied for weak measurement systems. For weak measurement systems with a thermal state pointer, we find that in the displacement space corresponding to imaginary weak values, the maximal quantum Fisher information (QFI) after the postselection for an accepted event (conversely, the postselection for a rejected event) can attain a level of thermal fluctuation, without surpassing the total QFI, and further, that QFI which increases with increasing temperature can constantly improve measurement precision. These results are much better than those of weak measurement with a pure state (i.e. Gaussian state) pointer. On the other hand, in Kerr nonlinear interaction systems with weak measurement, and by using a thermal state pointer, we obtain in the phase space the accepted postselection and the postselected measurement both achieving the Heisenberg limit of quantum metrology, and showing that weak measurement with thermal states only obtain classical Fisher information (CFI) which increases with increasing temperature and achieves classical-enhanced scaling of N 2 . Moreover, weak measurement with thermal states has an advantage over that with coherent states or mixed states of light because generating these states with larger uncertainty is limited under current technology, but thermal states with larger uncertainly are very easy to achieve with increasing temperature in nature, such as for optical systems and optomechanical systems.