Fisher Information and the Quantum Cramer-Rao Sensitivity Limit of Continuous Measurements

Precision measurements with quantum systems rely on our ability to trace the differences between experimental signals to variations in unknown physical parameters. In this Letter we derive the Fisher information and the ensuing Cramer-Rao sensitivity limit for parameter estimation by continuous measurements on an open quantum system. We illustrate our theory by its application to resonance fluorescence from a laser-driven two-state atom; we show that photon counting and homodyne detection records yield different sensitivity to the atomic parameters, while none of them exceed our general result.