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Physical Review A

Quasiprobability functions measured by photon statistics of amplified signal fields

M. S. Kim

Published Oct 1, 1997• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A quantum state can be described by its quasiprobability functions or by its density matrix. The quasiprobability functions and density matrix for nonclassical fields have been measured by making use of homodyne detection schemes. We suggest direct photodetection of the amplified signal fields for the quasiprobability function measurements. Linear amplification is described in phase space by a convolution of the signal field to the idler field, which normally determines added noise during amplification. Taking the coherent idler field and using the convolution relation, we show that the direct photodetection of the amplified field results in a quasiprobability function for the signal field. In particular, the probability of there being no photons in the amplified field is the scaled $Q$ function for the signal field.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.56.3175

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A quantum state can be described by its quasiprobability functions or by its density matrix. The quasiprobability functions and density matrix for nonclassical fields have been measured by making use of homodyne detection schemes. We suggest direct photodetection of the amplified signal fields for the quasiprobability function measurements. Linear amplification is described in phase space by a convolution of the signal field to the idler field, which normally determines added noise during amplification. Taking the coherent idler field and using the convolution relation, we show that the direct photodetection of the amplified field results in a quasiprobability function for the signal field. In particular, the probability of there being no photons in the amplified field is the scaled QQQ function for the signal field.
The existence of positive well-defined quasiprobabilities is known to be related to the measure of nonclassicality for a given field state. We test the coincidence of the loss of well-known nonclassical properties with the appearance of the positive well-defined quasiprobabilities for various fields influenced by phase-insensitive reservoirs. For Gaussian fields the appearance of a positive Glauber-Sudarshan P function coincides with the loss of nonclassical properties in quadrature fluctuations and in photon statistics. We find that when an initial Fock state dissipates or is amplified the initial field loses its nonclassicality in photon statistics before the P function becomes positive, which is different from the Gaussian field. The Wigner function may be positive even when the decaying Fock state is sub-Poissonian. For the amplification of the Fock state, however, the Wigner function is positive only when the field is super-Poissonian. For the dissipation and amplification of the Fock state the point when a certain quasiprobability function becomes positive definite depends only on the average number of photons N of the heat bath. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We consider double balanced homodyne detection schemes with and without (local oscillator) phase-randomized detection. We discuss the reconstruction of the photon statistics from phase-randomized measurements. We show how the Wigner function of a photon-number state can be synthesized from phase-randomized double homodyne measurements of two properly prepared field states. Moreover we propose a new procedure to determine the whole density matrix from the Q function. Finally we express the Q function in terms of normally ordered moments and discuss their reconstruction.
We report the direct continuous-in-phase sampling of a regularized PPP function, the so-called nonclassicality quasiprobability, for squeezed light. Through their negativities, the resulting phase-space representation uncovers the quantum character of the state. In contrast to discrete phase-locked measurements, our approach allows an unconditional verification of nonclassicality by getting rid of interpolation errors due to fixed phases. To realize the equal phase distribution of measured quadratures, a data selection is implemented with quantum random numbers created by measuring the vacuum noise. The continuously measured squeezed field was generated in an optical parametric amplifier. Suitable pattern functions for obtaining the regularized PPP function are investigated. The significance of detecting negativities in our application is determined. The sampling of nonclassicality quasiprobabilities is shown to be a powerful and universal method to visualize quantum effects within arbitrary quantum states.
Systems of on-off detectors are well established for measuring radiation fields in the regime of small photon numbers. We propose to combine these detector systems with unbalanced homodyning with a weak local oscillator. This approach yields phase-space functions, which represent the click counterpart of the s parametrized quasiprobabilities of standard photoelectric detection theory. This introduced class of distributions can be directly sampled from the measured click-counting statistics. Therefore, our technique visualizes nonclassical effects without further data processing. Surprisingly, a small number of on-off diodes can yield more insight than perfect photon number resolution. Quantum signatures in the particle and wave domain of the quantized radiation field, as shown by photon number and squeezed states, respectively, will be uncovered in terms of negativities of the sampled phase-space functions. Application in the vast fields of quantum optics and quantum technology will benefit from our efficient nonclassicality characterization approach.
The experimental schemes for measuring quantum-mechanical phase properties of light suggested and partly also realized thus far, namely (i) amplification, with the help of a quantum amplifier, of the microscopic field before phase measurement, (ii) heterodyning the field with a strong local oscillator, and (iii) performing two separate homodyne measurements on the field after beam splitting, are compared from a theoretical point of view.They share the common feature that undesired noise enters the experimental setup, which makes the measurement fuzzy.It will be pointed out that all three schemes amount to measuring the Q function of the original field, and hence are fully equivalent.Since the Q function can be interpreted as a smoothed Wigner function, one may associate with the introduced noise a smoothing process in which intrinsically quantum-mechanical features displayed by finer details of the Wigner function -especially by the occurrence of negative values -are lost.As a consequence, the measured phase distribution will be broader than the "true" one based on the concept of a quantum-mechanical phase operator.In realistic experiments, the nonunit detection efficiency further deteriorates the measuring results.It will be shown that also this echect can be properly described by an (additional) smoothing process leading to a certain s-parametrized quasiprobability distribution, with a parameter s that is connected with the detection efficiency in a simple way, as the distribution that is actually measurable.
Three characteristic functions are reviewed along with the quantum theory of linear systems and used to derive the P-representation, Wigner distribution and quasi-probability density of coherent states and squeezed states. The quasiprobability density is interpreted as the outcome of measurements utilising a beamsplitter with homodyne detection. The quasiprobability density concept is generalised and its interpretation in terms of a measurement is presented. The measurement utilises a beam splitter with one of its inputs in a squeezed state followed by two homodyne detectors.