Is the Wigner function directly measurable in quantum optics?

Falk-Richard Winkelmann, Carrie Ann Weidner, Gautam Ramola +3 more

Abstract We present a scheme to directly probe the Wigner function of the motional state of a neutral atom confined in an optical trap. The proposed scheme relies on the well-established fact that the Wigner function at a given point (x, p) in phase space is proportional to the expectation value of the parity operator relative to that point. In this work, we show that the expectation value of the parity operator can be directly measured using two auxiliary internal states of the atom: parity-even and parity-odd motional states are mapped to the two internal states of the atom through a Ramsey interferometry scheme. The Wigner function can thus be measured point-by-point in phase space with a single, direct measurement of the internal state population. Numerical simulations show that the scheme is robust in that it applies not only to deep, harmonic potentials but also to shallower, anharmonic traps.

Daniela Dragoman, Mircea Dragoman

K. Kowalski, Jakub Rembieliński

Alessia Allevi, Maria Bondani, Alessandra Andreoni

We present the experimental reconstruction of the Wigner function of some optical states. The method is based on direct intensity measurements by non-ideal photodetectors operated in the linear regime. The signal state is mixed at a beam-splitter with a set of coherent probes of known complex amplitudes and the probability distribution of the detected photons is measured. The Wigner function is given by a suitable sum of these probability distributions measured for different values of the probe. For comparison, the same data are analyzed to obtain the number distributions and the Wigner functions for photons.

Tom Douce, A. Eckstein, Stephen Patrick Walborn +5 more

The Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) experiment was a benchmark in quantum optics, evidencing the non-classical nature of photon pairs, later generalized to quantum systems with either bosonic or fermionic statistics. We show that a simple modification in the well-known and widely used HOM experiment provides the direct measurement of the Wigner function. We apply our results to one of the most reliable quantum systems, consisting of biphotons generated by parametric down conversion. A consequence of our results is that a negative value of the Wigner function is a sufficient condition for non-gaussian entanglement between two photons. In the general case, the Wigner function provides all the required information to infer entanglement using well known necessary and sufficient criteria. The present work offers a new vision of the HOM experiment that further develops its possibilities to realize fundamental tests of quantum mechanics using simple optical set-ups.

I. Földesi, József Janszky, Петер Адам +3 more