Ramsey interferometry with generalized one-axis twisting echoes

Abstract: We consider a large class of Ramsey interferometry protocols which are enhanced by squeezing and un-squeezing operations before and after a phase signal is imprinted on the collective spin of $N$ particles. We report an analytical optimization for any given particle number and strengths of (un-)squeezing. These results can be applied even when experimentally relevant decoherence processes during the squeezing and un-squeezing interactions are included. Noise between the two interactions is however not considered in this work. This provides a generalized characterization of squeezing echo protocols, recovering a number of known quantum metrological protocols as local sensitivity maxima, thereby proving their optimality. We discover a single new protocol. Its sensitivity enhancement relies on a double inversion of squeezing. In the general class of echo protocols, the newly found over-un-twisting protocol is singled out due to its Heisenberg scaling even at strong collective dephasing.