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arXiv:1311.0943 · Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Generation of picosecond pulsed coherent state superpositions

Ruifang Dong, Anders Tipsmark, Amine Laghaout, Leonid A. Krivitsky, Miroslav Ježek, Ulrik L. Andersen

Published Apr 24, 2014• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present the generation of approximated coherent state superpositions—referred to as Schrödinger cat states—by the process of subtracting single photons from picosecond pulsed squeezed states of light. The squeezed vacuum states are produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in a periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal while the single photons are probabilistically subtracted using a beamsplitter and a single photon detector. The resulting states are fully characterized with time-resolved homodyne quantum state tomography. Varying the pump power of the SPDC, we generated different states which exhibit non-Gaussian behavior.

DOI
10.1364/josab.31.001192

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We present the generation of approximated coherent state superpositions—referred to as Schrödinger cat states—by the process of subtracting single photons from picosecond pulsed squeezed states of light. The squeezed vacuum states are produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in a periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal while the single photons are probabilistically subtracted using a beamsplitter and a single photon detector. The resulting states are fully characterized with time-resolved homodyne quantum state tomography. Varying the pump power of the SPDC, we generated different states which exhibit non-Gaussian behavior.
We present generation of photon-subtracted squeezed states at 860 nm, from nearly pure, continuous-wave squeezed vacua generated with a periodically-poled KTiOPO(4) crystal as a nonlinear medium of a subthreshold optical parametric oscillator. We observe various kinds of photon-subtracted squeezed states, including non-Gaussian states similar to the single-photon state and superposition states of coherent states, simply by changing the pump power. Nonclassicality of the generated states clearly shows up as its negative region around the origin of the phase-space distributions, i.e., the Wigner functions. We obtain the value, -0.083 at the origin of the Wigner function, which is largest ever observed without any correction for experimental imperfections.
We have generated and measured an approximation of an optical Schrödinger cat state by photon subtraction from a squeezed state. Using single-photon avalanche photodiode detectors and photon-number-resolving transition edge sensors, we were able to extract Wigner distributions for one or two photons subtracted from the squeezed state, resulting in both an odd and even cat state. The one-photon-subtracted Wigner distribution shows measured negative features (without any correction), indicating quantum character. The Wigner distribution of the two-photon-subtracted state is negative after correcting for homodyne losses. A full statistical analysis is under way to quantify the magnitude and fidelity of the cat states generated.
Non-Gaussian states are essential resources for universal, fault-tolerant optical quantum computing, but their generation rate remains limited by low heralding probabilities and operation in nanosecond temporal modes. Here, we demonstrate multi-photon generalized photon subtraction in picosecond optical wave packets, establishing the state-generation capability required for high-rate operation by addressing the temporal-mode bottleneck that has constrained the achievable rate. Two interfering ultrashort squeezed vacua are heralded by photon-number-resolving detection with a high-speed transition-edge sensor and characterized by pulsed homodyne detection matched to 10-ps temporal modes at a 5-MHz pump repetition rate. We reconstruct Wigner functions without loss correction that exhibit up to four distinct negative regions for four-photon heralding, together with an effective cat-state amplitude of αeff=1.69α_{\mathrm{eff}} = 1.69αeff​=1.69. This amplitude approaches the range of practical relevance for fault-tolerant cat-code architectures and for adaptive breeding toward logical-qubit generation, while the picosecond temporal mode establishes a platform compatible with high-rate, scalable time-multiplexed photonic architectures.
We present generation of photon-subtracted squeezed state at 860nm, from continuous-wave squeezed vacua generated with a periodically-poled KTiOPO4 crystal as a nonlinear medium of a subthreshold optical parametric oscillator. We observe various kinds of photon-subtracted squeezed states, including “non-Gaussian” states similar to the single-photon state and superposition states of coherent states, simply by changing the pump power. Nonclassicality of the generated states clearly emerges as its negative region around the origin of the phase-space distributions, i. e., the Wigner functions. We obtain the value,-0.083 at the origin of the Wigner function, which is largest ever observed without any correction for experimental imperfections.
Light is a perfect candidate to carry out quantum information for applications to quantum computation, communication and metrology. Information can be encoded using observables with discrete spectrum (or DV for discrete variable encoding) as well as with continuous spectrum observables (or CV for continuous variable encoding). One of the most used states to encode a CV qubit is the so called optical Schrödinger cat state, i.e. a superposition of two coherent states with the same amplitude and opposite phases. Approximation of these states, named Schrödinger kittens, have been generated in an heralded fashion by subtraction of one or two photons from a degenerate single mode squeezed vacuum states. Experiments have been conducted in continuous wave regime generally using optical parametric oscillators as well as in the pulsed regime. The quality of Schrödinger kittens generated with this strategy, however, suffers from the impurity of the squeezing in the wave-packet of the heralded state. In the CW regime, it is shown theoretically and experimentally that a narrowband filtering of the heralding photon increase the purity of thegenerated state. We extend this study so as to describe also the pulsed regime where the squeezed vacuum state is in general spectrally multimode. We calculate and numerically simulate the state generated when subtracting a photon from an arbitrary multimode pulsed squeezed vacuum state. Inaddition, we investigate its homodyne detection by considering an arbitrary pulsed local oscillator. The fidelity between the heralded state and a perfect single mode photon subtracted squeezed state decreases when the number of modes excited in the multimode squeezed vacuum increases. We show how to increase this fidelity by using a narrowband filter in the heralding path. This study quantifies the effect of spectral filtering on the quality of the generated state using a multimode approach that can be applied to a wide variety of situations. We believe that it will have a major impact on realisation of non-Gaussian states in an heralded fashion.
Coherent state superpositions, also known as Schrödinger cat states, are widely recognized as promising resources in quantum information, quantum metrology, as well as fundamental tests. These states are hard to produce deterministically and most schemes for their probabilistic generation can only attain amplitudes too small for practical use. This is for example the case for photon-subtracted squeezed vacuum (PSSV), which can be used to approximate cat states of amplitude no larger than y = 1.5 if the fidelity is to be maintained above 95%. One way to reach larger amplitudes is to start with pairs of small cats and then to interfere them on a balanced beam splitter. The projective measurement of one of the outputs is used to herald a larger cat resulting from the constructive interference of the initial states. The scheme proposed here uses the projection |x = 0〉〈x = 0| as the heralding condition. Homodyning is proposed, as opposed to photon counting, because homodyne detection has high a quantum efficiency, and - as demonstrated in the paper - can be tuned to increase the success probability of the amplification without heavily compromising the output's fidelity.