Fock-state view of weak-value measurements and implementation with photons and atomic ensembles

Weak measurements in combination with postselection can give rise to a striking amplification effect (related to a large weak value). We show that this effect can be understood by viewing the initial state of the pointer as the ground state of a fictional harmonic oscillator. This perspective clarifies the relationship between the weak-value regime and other measurement techniques and inspires a proposal to implement fully quantum weak-value measurements combining photons and atomic ensembles.