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Quantum Electronics

Optical systems for measuring the Wigner function of a laser beam by the method of phase-spatial tomography

A. V. Gitin

Published Jan 31, 2007• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The geometrical and wave approaches to the transformation of a family of the illumination distributions, measured at different sections of a laser beam focused by an optical system, to a family of different-aspect projections of the Wigner function of this beam required for the reconstruction of this function by the method of computer tomography are considered from a unified point of view by using the mathematical apparatus of matrix optics.

DOI
10.1070/qe2007v037n01abeh013271

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The geometrical and wave approaches to the transformation of a family of the illumination distributions, measured at different sections of a laser beam focused by an optical system, to a family of different-aspect projections of the Wigner function of this beam required for the reconstruction of this function by the method of computer tomography are considered from a unified point of view by using the mathematical apparatus of matrix optics.
This chapter begins with a review of classical tomography, which reconstructs hidden structures inside an object by successive transmissions of an X-ray beam at different angles and lateral displacements. By interpreting the Wigner distribution as an analogue of the density distribution in a physical object, the mathematical methods of classical tomography — the Radon transform, the Fourier slice theorem, and the inverse Radon transform — are adapted to perform a high resolution determination of a quantum state of light. In optical homodyne tomography, the classical transmission angle is replaced by the adjustable phase of a local oscillator, and the successive lateral displacements are replaced by a series of measurements of the quadrature operator defined by the local oscillator phase. Experimental data is presented showing various properties of the Wigner distribution for a coherent state.
Summary form only given.We show experimentally the reconstructions of Wigner functions for the output states of a laser. These states have classical Wigner functions with Gaussian cross-sections. In order to investigate the spectral properties of the output states, we normalize the Wigner functions in the inverse Radon transform algorithm to a coherent state. In this way, we are able to compare the full spectrum of Wigner functions obtained with different detection frequencies, paying particular attention to Wigner functions near the laser relaxation oscillation. The same normalized Wigner function is also used to measure squeezed optical states from an optical parametric oscillator. When large modulation is introduced to the laser beam, a dc component is introduced in the Wigner function. We show that Wigner functions of incoherent superposition states can be reconstructed using this modulation technique. In some cases, fluctuations can be large enough to produce highly non-Gaussian Wigner functions. We provide examples of such cases and show that optical homodyne tomography can provide essentially new information not detectable with standard quadrature variance measurements. Furthermore, we demonstrate that single sideband analysis used to date will sometimes no longer suffice in the analysis of such optical states. We include the higher order sideband correlations experimentally and discuss the necessity of these higher order sidebands for measuring non-Gaussian quantum states, e.g. Schrodinger's cat and Fock states.
A new class of phase-retrieval methods for 2-D fields is introduced. Phase-space tomography can be used for the experimental determination of the amplitude and phase structure of a quasi-monochromatic wave field in a plane normal to its propagation direction. The wave field ψ(r) may represent either a scalar electromagnetic (EM) field or the quantum-mechanical (QM) wave function of a matter wave. The complex wave field may be coherent or partially coherent, in which case the method reconstructs the two-point spatial correlation function, Γ(r, r′) = ⟨ψ(r)ψ*(r′)⟩. (In the QM case, the analogous quantity is the density matrix.) The experiment uses only intensity measurements and refractive optics (lenses), and the data-analysis algorithm is noniterative and requires no deconvolution.
Quasiprobability measures on a canonical phase space give rise through the action of Weyl's quantization map to operator-valued measures and, in particular, to region operators. Spectral properties, transformations, and general construction methods of such operators are investigated. Geometric trace-increasing maps of density operators are introduced for the construction of region operators associated with one-dimensional domains, as well as with two-dimensional shapes (segments, canonical polygons, lattices, etc.). Operational methods are developed that implement such maps in terms of unitary operations by introducing extensions of the original quantum system with ancillary spaces (qubits). Tomographic methods of reconstruction of the Wigner function based on the radon transform technique are derived by the construction methods for region operators. A Hamiltonian realization of the region operator associated with the radon transform is provided, together with physical interpretations.