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AIP conference proceedings

Spectral overlap in direct measurements of displaced single-photon states

Kaisa Laiho, Malte Avenhaus, K. N. Cassemiro, Christine Silberhorn, Timothy C. Ralph, Ping Koy Lam

Published Jan 1, 2011• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Many sophisticated quantum states of light display non-classical, characteristic oscillations in their photon statistics altering with respect to the applied displacement. In order to detect these oscillations the mode matching between the studied state and the displacement field plays a crucial role. Only recently the developments in the photon counting techniques have allowed the direct measurements of the photon-number distributions of quantum states. We investigate the properties of displaced single photons by applying time-multiplexed detection of photon statistics and quantify the value of the mode overlap.

DOI
10.1063/1.3630137

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Many sophisticated quantum states of light display non-classical, characteristic oscillations in their photon statistics altering with respect to the applied displacement. In order to detect these oscillations the mode matching between the studied state and the displacement field plays a crucial role. Only recently the developments in the photon counting techniques have allowed the direct measurements of the photon-number distributions of quantum states. We investigate the properties of displaced single photons by applying time-multiplexed detection of photon statistics and quantify the value of the mode overlap.
Recent developments in quantum optics have led to new proposals to generate number states of the electromagnetic field using conditioned measurement techniques or the properties of atom-field interactions in microwave cavities in the micromaser. The number-state field prepared in such a way may be transformed by the action of a displacement operator; for the microwave micromaser state this could be implemented by the action of a classical current that drives the cavity field. We evaluate some properties of such displaced number states, especially their description in phase space. The photon number distribution is shown to display unusual oscillations, which are interpreted as interference in phase space, analogous to Franck-Condon oscillations in molecular spectra. The possibility of detecting these oscillations is discussed, through the photodetection counting statistics of the displaced number states. We show that the displaced-number-state quantum features are relatively robust when dissipation of the field energy is included.
This thesis intends to familiarize the reader with the concepts of photon statistics and correlations in quantum optics. Developing light sources that emit quantum states is central for the realization of quantum technologies. One important step in characterizing these sources is the measurement of field fluctuations and correlations, by coincidence measurements. The expectation value of a coincidence measurement, a simultaneous measurement of two intensities (or, more general, four fields), is represented by the fourth-order correlation function. The value of the correlation function, at zero delay between the detection of two photons, reveals important properties of the state to which they belonged, for example the fluctuations of the photon number. Since predictability is important for many applications, light sources emitting single photons are also characterized by the indistinguishability of consecutively emitted photons, or of two photons from separate emitters. In paper I we investigate blinking behaviour in quantum emitters, and its effect on the interference pattern and photon statistics with photons from two separate emitters. Blinking refers to an emitters transition into a non-emitting state, and subsequent transition back to an emitting state. We show that blinking can not be treated as linear loss, when measuring the fourth-order correlation function for two emitters in a Hong-Ou-Mandel setup. In general, a measurement of the fourth-order correlation function is robust to loss, which makes it a very practical tool. However, the relation between recorded coincidence counts and the correlation function is only direct in the limit of zero detection efficiency, and depends on the detection system. In paper II, we show that by adding a variable attenuation in the beam path, we can trace back to the ''true'' value of the correlation function at zero quantum efficiency. This method improves accuracy in correlation measurements by decreasing a systematic error at the expense of an increased statistical error, which is easier to handle, extending the use of coincidence methods to classical and non-classical multi-photon states.
We investigate the capabilities of loss-tolerant quantum state characterization using a photon-number resolving, time-multiplexed detector (TMD). We employ the idea of probing the Wigner function point-by-point in phase space via photon parity measurements and displacement operations, replacing the conventional homodyne tomography. Our emphasis lies on reconstructing the Wigner function of non-Gaussian Fock states with highly negative values in a scheme that is based on a realistic experimental set-up. In order to establish the concept of loss-tolerance for state characterization, we show how losses can be decoupled from the impact of other experimental imperfections, i.e. the non-unity transmittance of the displacement beamsplitter and non-ideal mode overlap. We relate the experimentally accessible parameters to effective ones that are needed for an optimized state reconstruction. The feasibility of our approach is tested by Monte Carlo simulations, which provide bounds resulting from statistical errors that are due to limited data sets. Our results clearly show that high losses can be accepted for a defined parameter range, and moreover, that-in contrast to homodyne detection-mode mismatch results in a distinct signature, which can be evaluated by analysing the photon number oscillations of the displaced Fock states.
Temporal-spectral modes of light provide a fundamental window into the nature of quantum systems and offer a robust means for information encoding. Methods to precisely characterize the temporal-spectral state of light at the single-photon level thus play a central role in understanding single-photon sources and their applications in emerging optical quantum technologies. Here we demonstrate an optical reference-free method, which melds techniques from ultrafast metrology and single-photon spectral detection, to characterize the pulse-mode structure of heralded single photons.