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We consider estimating a small transverse displacement of an optical beam over a line-of-sight propagation path: a problem that has numerous important applications ranging from establishing a lasercom link, single-molecule tracking, guided munition, to atomic force microscopy. We establish the ultimate quantum limit of the accuracy of sensing a beam displacement, and quantify the classical-quantum gap. Further, using normal-mode decomposition of the Fresnel propagation kernel, and insights from recent work on entanglement-assisted sensing, we find a near-term realizable multi-spatio-temporal-mode continuous-variable entangled-state probe and a receiver design, which attains the quantum precision limit. We find a Heisenberg-limited sensitivity enhancement in terms of the number of entangled temporal modes, and a curious super-Heisenberg quantum enhanced scaling in terms of the number of entangled spatial modes permitted by the diffraction-limited beam propagation geometry.
Qi et al. (2018) studied this question.