Schrödinger Cat States in Quantum Optics

Demid Sychev, Alexander E. Ulanov, Anastasia A. Pushkina +3 more

Demin Yao

The generation of Schr\"odinger-cat-like states for quantum fundamental solitons in optical fibers is investigated. It is shown that the generation is possible at proper times in the dynamical evolution of an appropriately chosen initial state. Such a Schr\"odinger-cat-like state has a minimum number of components, three, and the superposition coefficients of components are all real. Mean values of the field and the intensity operators are calculated and the associated quantum interference behavior characteristic of quantum coherent superposition in the Schr\"odinger-cat-like states is revealed. The effect of dissipation on the Schr\"odinger-cat-like states is analyzed using a beam splitter. The severity with which losses tend to destroy interference between components of the input Schr\"odinger-cat-like state is noted.

M. Kira, S. W. Koch, Ryan P. Smith +2 more

Javier Rivera-Dean, Philipp Stammer, Emilio Pisanty +4 more

Recently, using conditioning approaches on the high-harmonic generation process induced by intense laser-atom interactions, we have developed a new method for the generation of optical Schrödinger cat states (Lewenstein et al. in Nat Phys, 17 1104–1108, 2021. https://doi/10.1038/s41567-021-01317-w). These quantum optical states have been proven to be very manageable as, by modifying the conditions under which harmonics are generated, one can interplay between kitten and genuine cat states. Here, we demonstrate that this method can also be used for the development of new schemes towards the creation of optical Schrödinger cat states, consisting of the superposition of three distinct coherent states. Apart from the interest these kind of states have on their own, we additionally propose a scheme for using them towards the generation of large cat states involving the sum of two different coherent states. The quantum properties of the obtained superpositions aim to significantly increase the applicability of optical Schrödinger cat states for quantum technology and quantum information processing.

Ranjit Singh, Alexander Evgen’evich Teretenkov

Theoretically it is shown that high quantum sensitivity of the squeezed state of the Schrodinger cat relative to the non-squeezed state can be achieved. For realization of squeezing the Schrodinger cat state, a parametric process in a nonlinear optical crystal is used. To visualize the squeezed state of the Schrodinger cat with and without a displacement, the values of the Wigner functions are calculated.

Ijaz Durrani