In this Letter, we present a simple and versatile scheme for enhancing the nonclassical properties of light states using only linear optics and photodetectors. By combining a coherent state |α〉 and an arbitrary pure state of light |ϕ〉 (excluding coherent states) at two beam splitters, we show that the amplitude α of the coherent state can be tuned to filter out specific Fock components and generate states of light with increased nonclassical features. We provide two examples of input states and demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme in enhancing the sub-Poissonian statistics or the quadrature squeezing of the output states.
In this Letter, we present a simple and versatile scheme for enhancing the nonclassical properties of light states using only linear optics and photodetectors. By combining a coherent state |α〉 and an arbitrary pure state of light |ϕ〉 (excluding coherent states) at two beam splitters, we show that the amplitude α of the coherent state can be tuned to filter out specific Fock components and generate states of light with increased nonclassical features. We provide two examples of input states and demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme in enhancing the sub-Poissonian statistics or the quadrature squeezing of the output states.
A possible way of generating nonclassical states of light is via the truncation of a given state in the Fock basis. In recent work, we presented an alternative scheme for such quantum scissors [ Phys. Rev. A 104 , 033715 ( 2021 ) PLRAAN 1050-2947 10.1103/PhysRevA.104.033715 ], employing a nondegenerate parametric amplifier, a beam splitter, and photodetectors. An advantage of this setup is that it does not require the generation of Fock states beforehand, as in previous proposals. Here we extend this treatment to mixed input states. We show the possibilities of generating truncated states with either a maximum Fock number N or states having a minimum Fock number N . We discuss two specific examples of states to be truncated: (i) the thermal state and (ii) the phase-diffused coherent state. In either case, the generated field states can present sub-Poissonian statistics as well as non-Gaussian character. These nonclassical properties can be adjusted by changing the parameters of the scissors, e.g., the amplifier strength and the beam-splitter transmittance.
We present a scheme of quantum state truncation in the Fock basis (quantum scissors), based on the combined action of a nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier and a beam splitter. Differently from previously proposed linear-optics-based quantum scissors devices, which depend on reliable Fock state sources, our scheme requires only readily available Gaussian states, such as coherent state inputs (vacuum state included). A truncated state is generated after performing photodetections in the global state. We find that, depending on which output ports each of the two photodetectors is positioned, different types of truncated states may be produced: (i) states having a maximum Fock number of N, or (ii) states having a minimum Fock number N. In order to illustrate our method, we discuss an example having as input states a coherent state in the beam splitter and vacuum states in the amplifier, and show that the resulting truncated states display nonclassical properties, such as sub-Poissonian statistics and squeezing. We quantify the nonclassicality degree of the generated states using the Wigner-Yanase skew information measure. For complementarity, we discuss the efficiency of the protocol, e.g., generation probability as well as the effects of imperfections such as the detector's quantum efficiency and dark counts rate.
The ability to tailor photon-number statistics is central to the generation and control of nonclassical states of light. Here, we investigate how Fock-state filtering of squeezed coherent states can be used to engineer their photon statistics. We consider the selective removal of the m=0 and m=1 Fock components and show that this process can enhance the sub-Poissonian character of the field, depending on the coherent amplitude. We then analyze the evolution of these engineered states in a thermal environment. Although all states eventually relax toward thermal statistics, the signatures of the filtering process may persist over a significant part of the evolution, while the purity of the filtered states is rapidly degraded by incoherent population redistribution. Our results illustrate both the potential and the limitations of photon-number engineering in realistic, dissipative settings.
Abstract Quantum optical systems with nonclassical features play a vital role in the physical implementation of a large variety of quantum technologies, such as quantum metrology, quantum information processing, and quantum computation protocols, and hence are important to exploit the quantum advantage. In this work, we construct a general class of nonclassical coherent states (CSs) of light and present a scheme to enhance their nonclassicality by multiphoton excitation. In particular, using various optical realizations of s u ( 1 , 1 ) Lie algebra, we construct CSs of light following Barut-Girardello formalism and then perform the multiphoton discrete excitation on these continuous-variable optical CSs. We investigate the nonclassical features by analyzing the photon-counting probability distribution, Mandel Q − parameter, quadrature squeezing, and Wigner quasi-probability distribution. Our numerical results show that, for a particular set of parametric values, these multiphoton excited states exhibit sub-Poisson photon-counting statistics, quadrature squeezing, and negativity of Wigner distribution, which are indicators of nonclassicality. Moreover, it is shown that the nonclassical nature of these states gets enhanced as the photon-excitation number increases.
Abstract Recently, photon subtraction from the single-mode squeezed vacuum state (SVS) has been explored as a technique to enhance its squeezing strength (SS). Notably, the enhancement is observed only when an even number of photons is subtracted, and this effect is limited to a specific range of the squeezing parameter r. In this paper, we introduce a novel class of single-mode nonclassical states, termed as qubit superposed SVSs (qSSVSs), via the coherent superposition of a SVS and a single-photon-subtracted SVS. The primary objective of this work is to enhance the SS for any r > 0 through the creation of these superposed states. Our analysis reveals that the qSSVSs not only improve the SS but also exhibit enhanced nonclassical features such as the negativity of Wigner function, single-mode antibunching effect, photon-number distribution, and sub-Poissonian photon statistics. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the qSSVSs provide superior phase sensitivity in a quantum Mach–Zehnder interferometer compared to the original SVS. Importantly, the generation of qSSVSs is feasible using readily available optical devices, including a beam splitter, a photodetector, and an amplitude displacement. These states hold significant potential for practical applications in quantum information science, particularly for tasks such as information encoding and processing in quantum computing systems.
Conditional Measurement scheme which employs linear optical elements and photon detection is the fertile ground for nonclassical state generation. We consider a simple setup that requires a coherent state and a number state as inputs of the beam splitter, and a photon detector. We show that by tuning the parameters involved in the setup, we can achieve optimal squeezing from the setup. This is facilitated by writing the output state of the conditional measurement as displaced qudits. Setting aside displacement which plays no role in squeezing, the finite-dimensional representation makes it possible to calculate the maximal amount of squeezing. By fixing the detection at one photon level irrespective of any number state input and carefully chosen coherent parameter and beam splitter reflectivity values, one can reach the maximal squeezing at least for lower number state inputs. This is in contrast to the earlier attempts in atom field interaction models etc., where the squeezing obtained was far from saturation. To accommodate the experimental imperfections, we consider the impure nature of the photon source and detector inefficiency.