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

Conditionally prepared photon and quantum imaging

Alexander I. Lvovsky, Thomas Aichele

Published Oct 19, 2004• 4 citations

Abstract

We discuss a classical model allowing one to visualize and characterize the optical mode of the single photon generated by means of a conditional measurement on a biphoton produced in parametric down-conversion. The model is based on Klyshko's advanced wave interpretation, but extends beyond it, providing a precise mathematical description of the advanced wave. The optical mode of the conditional photon is shown to be identical to the mode of the classical difference-frequency field generated due to nonlinear interaction of the partially coherent advanced wave with the pump pulse. With this "nonlinear advanced wave model" most coherence properties of the conditional photon become manifest, which permits one to intuitively understand many recent results, in particular, in quantum imaging.

DOI: 10.1117/12.561885

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