Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Nonclassical mesoscopic twin-beam of light

Maria Bondani, Alessia Allevi, Guido Zambra, Matteo G. A. Paris, Alessandra Andreoni, Jan Peřina, J. Křepelka, Jan Peřina

Published Sep 11, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate, by direct measurement of the number of photons in signal and idler, that the twin-beam of light produced by ps-pulsed spontaneous parametric downconversion is endowed with sub-shot-noise photon-number correlations in a mesoscopic intensity regime (more than 1000 detected photons). The noise reduction, calculated from the variance of the difference in the numbers of detected-photons, resulted to be 3.25 dB below the shot-noise level. From experimental data we can recover joint photon-number distribution and a negative-valued joint signal-idler quasi-distributions of integrated intensities, which demonstrates the nonclassical character of the generated field.

DOI
10.1117/12.732466

Related papers

Sub-shot-noise photon-number correlation in a mesoscopic twin beam of light

Maria Bondani, Alessia Allevi, Guido Zambra +2 more

We demonstrate sub-shot-noise photon-number correlations in a (temporal) multimode mesoscopic ($\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{3}$ detected photons) twin beam produced by picosecond-pulsed spontaneous nondegenerate parametric down-conversion. We have separately detected the signal and idler distributions of photons collected in twin coherence areas and found that the variance of the photon-count difference goes below the shot-noise limit by $3.25\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{dB}$. The number of temporal modes contained in the twin beam, as well as the size of the twin coherence areas, depends on the pump intensity. Our scheme is based on spontaneous down-conversion and thus does not suffer from limitations due to the finite gain of the parametric process. Twin beams are also used to demonstrate the conditional preparation of a nonclassical (sub-Poissonian) state.

arXiv:quant-ph/0612198•Physical Review A•Jul 27, 2007•154 citations

Statistical properties of twin beams generated in spontaneous parametric downconversion

Jan Peřina, Ondřej Haderka, Martin Hamar

Measurement of photon-number statistics of fields composed of photon pairs generated in spontaneous parametric downcoversion pumped by strong ultrashort pulses is described. Final detection quantum efficiencies, noises as well as possible loss of one or both photons from a pair are taken into account. Measured data provided by an intensified single-photon CCD camera are analyzed along the developed model. The joint signal-idler photon-number distribution is obtained using the expectation maximization algorithm. Covariance of the signal and idler photon-numbers equals 80 %. Statistics of the generated photon pairs are identified to be Poissonian in our case. Distribution of the integrated intensities of the signal and idler fields shows strong correlations between the fields. Negative values of this distribution occurring in some regions clearly demonstrate a nonclassical character of the light composed of photon pairs.

arXiv:quant-ph/0310065•Oct 10, 2003•5 citations

Experimental joint signal-idler quasidistributions and photon-number statistics for mesoscopic twin beams

Jan Peřina, J. Křepelka, Jan Peřina +3 more

Joint signal-idler photoelectron distributions of twin beams containing several tens of photons per mode have been measured recently. Exploiting a microscopic quantum theory for joint quasidistributions in parametric down-conversion developed earlier we characterize properties of twin beams in terms of quasidistributions using experimental data. Negative values as well as oscillating behavior in the quantum region are characteristic for the subsequently determined joint signal-idler quasidistributions of integrated intensities. Also the conditional and difference photon-number distributions are shown to be sub-Poissonian and sub-shot-noise, respectively.

arXiv:0708.2216•Physical Review A•Oct 9, 2007•25 citations

Photocount measurements as a tool for investigation of non-classical properties of twin beams

Jan Peřina, Jan Peřina, Ondřej Haderka +6 more

Joint signal-idler photoelectron distributions of twin beams have been measured recently in two distinct regimes: either the mean number of photon pairs per one pump pulse is lower that the number of independent modes or vice versa. Exploiting a microscopic quantum theory for joint quasi-distributions in parametric down-conversion based on the model of superposition of signal and noise we characterize properties of twin beams in terms of quasidistributions using experimental data. In parallel to the microscopic model, joint signal-idler photon-number distribution is reconstructed using the method of maximum likelihood. Negative values as well as oscillating behavior in quantum region are characteristic for the joint signal-idler quasi-distributions of integrated intensities. The larger the mean number of photon pairs per mode the weaker the quantum features are. However, they survive even in the mesoscopic regime, i.e. when tens of photon pairs per mode are present on average. Also the conditional and difference photon-number distributions are shown to be sub-Poissonian and sub-shot-noise, respectively. Violation of classical inequalities for photon-number distributions is discussed.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Nov 20, 2008•1 citation

Sub-shot-noise correlation of total photon number using macroscopic twin pulses of light

D. T. Smithey, M. Beck, Michael Scott Belsley +1 more

We have measured whole-pulse photon statistics of macroscopic twin pulses of light generated by coherently seeding a two-mode optical parametric amplifier equally in each mode. We are able to produce 300 ps, near-transform-limited twin pulses (\ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{6}$ photons) with a difference photon number having a variance measured to be 73% below the shot-noise level. We have measured probability distributions of the photoelectron difference number, which are the only photoelectron distributions in the macroscopic regime which cannot be explained using standard semiclassical detection theory.

Physical Review Letters•Nov 2, 1992•77 citations

Characterizing the nonclassicality of mesoscopic optical twin-beam states

Alessia Allevi, Marco Lamperti, Maria Bondani +4 more

We present a robust tool to analyze nonclassical properties of multimode twin-beam states in the mesoscopic photon-number domain. The measurements are performed by direct detection. The analysis exploits three different nonclassicality criteria for detected photons exhibiting complementary behavior in the explored intensity regime. Joint signal-idler photon-number distributions and quasidistributions of integrated intensities are determined and compared with the corresponding distributions of detected photons. Experimental conditions optimal for nonclassical properties of twin-beam states are identified.

arXiv:1311.4049•Physical Review A•Dec 2, 2013•30 citations
We demonstrate, by direct measurement of the number of photons in signal and idler, that the twin-beam of light produced by ps-pulsed spontaneous parametric downconversion is endowed with sub-shot-noise photon-number correlations in a mesoscopic intensity regime (more than 1000 detected photons). The noise reduction, calculated from the variance of the difference in the numbers of detected-photons, resulted to be 3.25 dB below the shot-noise level. From experimental data we can recover joint photon-number distribution and a negative-valued joint signal-idler quasi-distributions of integrated intensities, which demonstrates the nonclassical character of the generated field.
We demonstrate sub-shot-noise photon-number correlations in a (temporal) multimode mesoscopic ($\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{3}$ detected photons) twin beam produced by picosecond-pulsed spontaneous nondegenerate parametric down-conversion. We have separately detected the signal and idler distributions of photons collected in twin coherence areas and found that the variance of the photon-count difference goes below the shot-noise limit by 3.25dB3.25\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{dB}3.25dB. The number of temporal modes contained in the twin beam, as well as the size of the twin coherence areas, depends on the pump intensity. Our scheme is based on spontaneous down-conversion and thus does not suffer from limitations due to the finite gain of the parametric process. Twin beams are also used to demonstrate the conditional preparation of a nonclassical (sub-Poissonian) state.
Measurement of photon-number statistics of fields composed of photon pairs generated in spontaneous parametric downcoversion pumped by strong ultrashort pulses is described. Final detection quantum efficiencies, noises as well as possible loss of one or both photons from a pair are taken into account. Measured data provided by an intensified single-photon CCD camera are analyzed along the developed model. The joint signal-idler photon-number distribution is obtained using the expectation maximization algorithm. Covariance of the signal and idler photon-numbers equals 80 %. Statistics of the generated photon pairs are identified to be Poissonian in our case. Distribution of the integrated intensities of the signal and idler fields shows strong correlations between the fields. Negative values of this distribution occurring in some regions clearly demonstrate a nonclassical character of the light composed of photon pairs.
Joint signal-idler photoelectron distributions of twin beams containing several tens of photons per mode have been measured recently. Exploiting a microscopic quantum theory for joint quasidistributions in parametric down-conversion developed earlier we characterize properties of twin beams in terms of quasidistributions using experimental data. Negative values as well as oscillating behavior in the quantum region are characteristic for the subsequently determined joint signal-idler quasidistributions of integrated intensities. Also the conditional and difference photon-number distributions are shown to be sub-Poissonian and sub-shot-noise, respectively.
Joint signal-idler photoelectron distributions of twin beams have been measured recently in two distinct regimes: either the mean number of photon pairs per one pump pulse is lower that the number of independent modes or vice versa. Exploiting a microscopic quantum theory for joint quasi-distributions in parametric down-conversion based on the model of superposition of signal and noise we characterize properties of twin beams in terms of quasidistributions using experimental data. In parallel to the microscopic model, joint signal-idler photon-number distribution is reconstructed using the method of maximum likelihood. Negative values as well as oscillating behavior in quantum region are characteristic for the joint signal-idler quasi-distributions of integrated intensities. The larger the mean number of photon pairs per mode the weaker the quantum features are. However, they survive even in the mesoscopic regime, i.e. when tens of photon pairs per mode are present on average. Also the conditional and difference photon-number distributions are shown to be sub-Poissonian and sub-shot-noise, respectively. Violation of classical inequalities for photon-number distributions is discussed.
We have measured whole-pulse photon statistics of macroscopic twin pulses of light generated by coherently seeding a two-mode optical parametric amplifier equally in each mode. We are able to produce 300 ps, near-transform-limited twin pulses (\ensuremath{\sim}106{10}^{6}106 photons) with a difference photon number having a variance measured to be 73% below the shot-noise level. We have measured probability distributions of the photoelectron difference number, which are the only photoelectron distributions in the macroscopic regime which cannot be explained using standard semiclassical detection theory.
We present a robust tool to analyze nonclassical properties of multimode twin-beam states in the mesoscopic photon-number domain. The measurements are performed by direct detection. The analysis exploits three different nonclassicality criteria for detected photons exhibiting complementary behavior in the explored intensity regime. Joint signal-idler photon-number distributions and quasidistributions of integrated intensities are determined and compared with the corresponding distributions of detected photons. Experimental conditions optimal for nonclassical properties of twin-beam states are identified.