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arXiv:2602.22511 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Quantified convergence of general homodyne measurements with applications to continuous variable quantum computing

Emanuel Knill, Ezad Shojaee, James R. van Meter, Akira Kyle, Scott Glancy

quant-phSubmitted Feb 26, 2026• Announced Feb 27, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

In arXiv:2503.00188 we introduced broadband pulsed (BBP) homodyne measurements as a generalization of standard pulsed homodyne quadrature measurements. BBP can take advantage of detectors such as calorimeters that have the potential for high efficiency over a broad spectral range. BBP homodyne retains the advantages of standard pulsed homodyne, enabling measurement of arbitrary quadratures in the limit of large amplitude local oscillators (LO). Here we quantify the convergence of standard and BBP homodyne quadrature measurements to those of the quadrature of interest. We obtain lower bounds on the fidelity of the post-measurement classical-quantum state of outcomes and unmeasured modes, and the fidelity of the states obtained after applying operations conditional on measurement outcomes. The bounds depend on the LO amplitude and the moments of number operators. We demonstrate the practical relevance of these bounds by evaluating them for standard pulsed homodyne used for estimating values of the characteristic function of the Wigner distribution, expectations of moments, for quantum teleportation and for continuous variable error correction with GKP codes.

Comments
59 pages, 4 figures, 1 noteworthy table

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In arXiv:2503.00188 we introduced broadband pulsed (BBP) homodyne measurements as a generalization of standard pulsed homodyne quadrature measurements. BBP can take advantage of detectors such as calorimeters that have the potential for high efficiency over a broad spectral range. BBP homodyne retains the advantages of standard pulsed homodyne, enabling measurement of arbitrary quadratures in the limit of large amplitude local oscillators (LO). Here we quantify the convergence of standard and BBP homodyne quadrature measurements to those of the quadrature of interest. We obtain lower bounds on the fidelity of the post-measurement classical-quantum state of outcomes and unmeasured modes, and the fidelity of the states obtained after applying operations conditional on measurement outcomes. The bounds depend on the LO amplitude and the moments of number operators. We demonstrate the practical relevance of these bounds by evaluating them for standard pulsed homodyne used for estimating values of the characteristic function of the Wigner distribution, expectations of moments, for quantum teleportation and for continuous variable error correction with GKP codes.
A fundamental problem in quantum optics is to measure a quadrature operator of a mode described by a shape in the time or frequency domain. This can be done by pulsed homodyne detection, in which the signal and a high-amplitude pulsed local oscillator (LO) interfere on a beam splitter whose output ports are monitored by photodetectors. The quadrature value is proportional to the difference between the photodetectors' signals. When the shape of the mode is too broad in frequency, the lack of uniform spectral response of detectors prevents direct application of this technique. We show that pulsed homodyne detection can be generalized to broadband pulsed (BBP) homodyne detection with detectors such as calorimeters that detect total energy instead of total photon number. This generalization has applications in measurements of femtosecond pulses and, speculatively, of Rindler modes. We analyze how the implemented measurement approaches an ideal quadrature measurement with growing LO amplitude, and we prove that the moments of the measurement converge to the moments of the quadrature and that the measurement distributions converge weakly.
Shadow estimation provides an efficient framework for estimating observable expectation values using randomized measurements. While originally developed for discrete-variable systems, its recent extensions to continuous-variable (CV) quantum systems face practical limitations due to idealized assumptions of continuous phase modulation and infinite measurement resolution. In this work, we develop a practical shadow estimation protocol for CV systems using discretized homodyne detection with a finite number of phase settings and quadrature bins. We construct an unbiased estimator for the quantum state and establish both sufficient conditions and necessary conditions for informational completeness within a truncated Fock space up to nmaxn_{\mathrm{max}}nmax​ photons. We further provide a comprehensive variance analysis, showing that the shadow norm scales as O(nmax4)\mathcal{O}(n_{\mathrm{max}}^4)O(nmax4​), improving upon previous O(nmax13/3)\mathcal{O}(n_{\mathrm{max}}^{13/3})O(nmax13/3​) bounds. Our work bridges the gap between theoretical shadow estimation and experimental implementations, enabling robust and scalable quantum state characterization in realistic CV systems.
Homodyne measurement is a corner-stone of quantum optics. It measures the fundamental variables of quantum electrodynamics - the quadratures of light, which represent the cosine-wave and sine-wave components of an optical field and constitute the quantum optical analog of position and momentum. Yet, standard homodyne, which is used to measure the quadrature information, suffers from a severe bandwidth limitation: While the bandwidth of optical states can easily span many THz, standard homodyne detection is inherently limited to the electrically accessible, MHz to GHz range, leaving a dramatic gap between the relevant optical phenomena and the measurement capability. We demonstrate a fully parallel optical homodyne measurement across an arbitrary optical bandwidth, effectively lifting this bandwidth limitation completely. Using optical parametric amplification, which amplifies one quadrature while attenuating the other, we measure two-mode quadrature squeezing of 1.7dB below the vacuum level simultaneously across a bandwidth of 55THz, using just one local-oscillator - the pump. As opposed to standard homodyne, our measurement is highly robust to detection inefficiency, and was obtained with >50%>50\%>50% loss in the detection channel. This broadband parametric homodyne measurement opens a wide window for parallel processing of quantum information.
Homodyne measurement is a corner-stone method of quantum optics that measures the quadratures of light-the quantum optical analog of the canonical position and momentum. Standard homodyne, however, suffers from a severe bandwidth limitation: while the bandwidth of optical states can span many THz, standard homodyne is inherently limited to the electronically accessible MHz-to-GHz range, leaving a dramatic gap between relevant optical phenomena and the measurement capability. We demonstrate a fully parallel optical homodyne measurement across an arbitrary optical bandwidth, effectively lifting this bandwidth limitation completely. Using optical parametric amplification, which amplifies one quadrature while attenuating the other, we measure quadrature squeezing of 1.7 dB simultaneously across 55 THz, using the pump as the only local oscillator. As opposed to standard homodyne, our measurement is robust to detection inefficiency, and was obtained with >50% detection loss. Broadband parametric homodyne opens a wide window for parallel processing of quantum information.
We propose a pulse and continuous wave (CW) hybrid architecture of continuous-variable measurement-based optical quantum computation utilizing the strengths of both pulsed and CW light. In this architecture, input and ancillary non-Gaussian quantum states necessary for fault-tolerance and universality are generated with pulsed light, whereas quantum processors including continuous-variable cluster states and homodyne measurement systems are operated with CW light. This architecture is expected to enable both generation of quantum states with shorter optical wavepackets for ultrafast computation and low-loss manipulation and measurement of these states. In this study, as a proof-of-principle, an ultrafast homodyne measurement using a CW local oscillator was performed on single-photon states generated with pulsed light. The measured single-photon state's temporal width was around 70 ps and the value of the Wigner function at the origin was W(0,0)=−0.153±0.003W(0,0) = -0.153\pm0.003W(0,0)=−0.153±0.003, which is highly non-classical. This will be a core technology for high-speed optical quantum information processing.
Homodyne detection is a typical continuous-variable measurement scheme, ubiquitously used in quantum optics and quantum information. A conventional homodyne detector performs a projective measurement onto a quadrature of the electromagnetic field mode, thus yielding a continuously distributed measurement outcome. The outcome distribution is the marginal of the Wigner function of the state. Homodyne detection also forms the basis of heterodyne, or “dual homodyne” detection, which corresponds to measuring the Q function of the state.