A scheme based on homodyne detection for measuring conditional quadrature fluctuations for non-Gaussian fields is proposed. Results for light from parametric oscillators and fluorescence from an atom in a high-Q cavity are discussed.
Homodyne measurement is a crucial tool widely used to address continuous variables for bosonic quantum systems. While an ideal homodyne detection provides a powerful analysis, e.g., to effectively measure quadrature amplitudes of light in quantum optics, it relies on the use of a strong reference field, the so-called local oscillator, typically in a coherent state. Such a strong coherent local oscillator may not be readily available, particularly for a massive quantum system like a Bose-Einstein condensate, posing a substantial challenge in dealing with continuous variables appropriately. It is necessary to establish a practical framework that includes the effects of nonideal local oscillators for a rigorous assessment of various quantum tests and applications. We here develop entanglement criteria beyond a Gaussian regime applicable for this realistic homodyne measurement that do not require assumptions on the state of local oscillators. We discuss the working conditions of homodyne detection to effectively detect non-Gaussian quantum entanglement under various states of local oscillators.
Summary form only given. The squeezing of an optical field is normally observed in the frequency domain using balanced homodyne detection to measure the fluctuation variance of a selected quadrature amplitude. The scheme amounts to a measurement of sub-Poissonian photon statistics and is sensitive to efficiencies as any such unconditional measurement is. Conditional measurements are independent of efficiencies. We propose a conditional homodyne detection scheme for observing the amplitude fluctuations of squeezed light. The central idea is to sample the photocurrent by triggering on a photon count and hence realize an efficiency independent measurement that resolves the quantum fluctuations in time. Our scheme directly measures the correlation function.
Using master equation and quantum Monte Carlo wavefunction approaches, we study the circumstances surrounding the emergence and degradation of the elusive squeezing of fluctuations in two-level atom resonance fluorescence. For its measurement we suggest conditional homodyne detection (CHD) [G.T. Foster, L.A. Orozco, H.M. Castro-Beltran, H.J. Carmichael, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, pp. 3149-3152, 2000], which is nearly independent of detector efficiencies, which have harmed previous attemps. Squeezing in resonance fluorescence requires a weak laser, so the average interval between emitted photons is much longer than the regression time to the steady state; here, the spectrum of the out-of-phase quadrature is a negative peak. In CHD, moderate fields generate a non-zero third-order correlation in the dipole fluctuations that contaminates squeezing, making the noise non- Gaussian. If the probability to emit two and even three close photons is still small the additional contribution is also negative, helping to make the full spectrum a bit larger and easier to measure. Strong driving spreads the photoemission distribution, which destroys squeezing, and the third order fluctuations become responsible for the non-classicality of the fluorescence.