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arXiv:1109.0410 · Physical Review A

Measuring high-order photon-number correlations in experiments with multimode pulsed quantum states

Alessia Allevi, Stefano Olivares, Maria Bondani

Published Jun 25, 2012• 97 citations
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Abstract

We implement a direct detection scheme based on hybrid photodetectors to experimentally investigate high-order correlations for detected photons by means of experimentally accessible quantities. The scheme is self-consistent, allowing the estimation of all the involved parameters (quantum efficiency, number of modes, and average energy). In particular, we show how high-order correlation functions can be exploited to fully characterize bipartite multimode states in regimes realistic for quantum technology, that is, in the mesoscopic photon-number domain and with limited quantum efficiency. Furthermore, we introduce a nonclassicality criterion based on a simple linear combination of high-order correlation functions.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.063835

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We implement a direct detection scheme based on hybrid photodetectors to experimentally investigate high-order correlations for detected photons by means of experimentally accessible quantities. The scheme is self-consistent, allowing the estimation of all the involved parameters (quantum efficiency, number of modes, and average energy). In particular, we show how high-order correlation functions can be exploited to fully characterize bipartite multimode states in regimes realistic for quantum technology, that is, in the mesoscopic photon-number domain and with limited quantum efficiency. Furthermore, we introduce a nonclassicality criterion based on a simple linear combination of high-order correlation functions.
We measure high-order correlation functions of detected-photon numbers in the mesoscopic regime by means of hybrid photodetectors. The analytical expressions for correlations are evaluated in terms of quantities that can be experimentally accessed by a selfconsistent analysis of the detectors' outputs. We demonstrate that high-order correlations can be used to characterize the nature of the optical states, for instance by better discriminating between classical and quantum behavior even in critical situations, such as multimode twin-beam state. The results are in very good agreement with the theory, both for classical states and quantum states.
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We report on the implementation of a time-multiplexed click detection scheme to probe quantum correlations between different spatial optical modes. We demonstrate that such measurement setups can uncover nonclassical correlations in multimode light fields even if the single mode reductions are purely classical. The nonclassical character of correlated photon pairs, generated by a parametric down-conversion, is immediately measurable employing the theory of click counting instead of low-intensity approximations with photoelectric detection models. The analysis is based on second- and higher-order moments, which are directly retrieved from the measured click statistics, for relatively high mean photon numbers. No data postprocessing is required to demonstrate the effects of interest with high significance, despite low efficiencies and experimental imperfections. Our approach shows that such novel detection schemes are a reliable and robust way to characterize quantum-correlated light fields for practical applications in quantum communications.
We generate pulsed, two-mode squeezed states in a single spatiotemporal mode with mean photon numbers up to 20. We directly measure photon-number correlations between the two modes with transition edge sensors up to 80 photons per mode. This corresponds roughly to a state dimensionality of 6400. We achieve detection efficiencies of 64% in the technologically crucial telecom regime and demonstrate the high quality of our measurements by heralded nonclassical distributions up to 50 photons per pulse and calculated correlation functions up to 40th order.
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