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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Relationship between quantum states at the input and output of a beam splitter

C. K. Hong, Z. Y. Ou, L. Mandeļ

Published Jan 1, 1987• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

By making use of the diagonal coherent state representation of an optical field, together with the operator relations between dynamic variables at the input and output of a beam splitter, we have derived a general relation between density operators of input and output states. As an illustration of the general procedure we consider two orthogonally polarized photons at the beam splitter input and derive the output state. We show that in the special case in which the reflectivities and transmissivities of the beam splitter are equal, this state exhibits certain features of the well-known singlet state for orthogonally polarized photons.

DOI
10.1364/oam.1987.tui12

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arXiv:quant-ph/9905085•May 25, 1999•3 citations
By making use of the diagonal coherent state representation of an optical field, together with the operator relations between dynamic variables at the input and output of a beam splitter, we have derived a general relation between density operators of input and output states. As an illustration of the general procedure we consider two orthogonally polarized photons at the beam splitter input and derive the output state. We show that in the special case in which the reflectivities and transmissivities of the beam splitter are equal, this state exhibits certain features of the well-known singlet state for orthogonally polarized photons.
Abstract A beam splitter operator is a very important linear device in the field of quantum optics and quantum information. It can not only be used to prepare complete representations of quantum mechanics, entangled state representation, but it can also be used to simulate the dissipative environment of quantum systems. In this paper, by combining the transform relation of the beam splitter operator and the technique of integration within the product of the operator, we present the coherent state representation of the operator and the corresponding normal ordering form. Based on this, we consider the applications of the coherent state representation of the beam splitter operator, such as deriving some operator identities and entangled state representation preparation with continuous-discrete variables. Furthermore, we extend our investigation to two single and two-mode cascaded beam splitter operators, giving the corresponding coherent state representation and its normal ordering form. In addition, the application of a beam splitter to prepare entangled states in quantum teleportation is further investigated, and the fidelity is discussed. The above results provide good theoretical value in the fields of quantum optics and quantum information.
Beam splitter (BS) is a basic linear element in quantum optics, which plays an important role in preparation of entangled states and quantum measurement. On the basis of the transformation relation between operators at input ports and output ports, we derive the natural representations in different representations. Using the natural expression rather than SU(2) Lie algebra relation, as well as the technique of integration within ordered product (IWOP) of operator, we can conveniently and concisely derive the normally ordering form and exponential expression of BS operator. Many forms of decompositions for BS operator can also be directly obtained by its natural representation and the orthogonality of coordinate states. Furthermore, the entangled state representation and corresponding Schmidt decomposition can be conveniently obtained.
The second-order coherence of optical fields at output ports of a beam splitter is investigated. The properties of the second-order coherence are not only strongly dependent on the input states but also quite involved with the nature of the beam splitter. When parameters of both the input states and the beam splitter are chosen appropriately, the fields at the output ports will exhibit quantum behaviour. Between the two output modes, there stands mode–mode correlation which can even be anticorrelation. Some nonclassical properties, such as the photon antibunching effect of the input fields, may be destroyed by the beam splitter.
For optical homodyning, the matrix representation of a lossless beam splitter belongs to the SU(2) group of unimodular second-order unitary matrices. The connection between this group and the rotation group in three dimensions permits the field density operators at the input and output ports of the beam splitter to be related by means of well-known angular-momentum transformations. This, in turn, provides the joint output photon-number distribution, which may be written as a Fourier series in the relative phase shift imparted by the beam splitter, for a general joint state at its inputs. The series collapses to a single term if one of the input fields is diagonal in the number-state representation. If the inputs to both ports are further restricted to be pure number states, the joint, as well as the marginal photon-number distributions, turn out to be directly proportional to the square of Jacobi polynomials in the beam-splitter transmittance. These photon-number probabilities are invariant to a set of physical and time-reversal symmetries. When one of the input photon-number states is the vacuum, the beam splitter simply deletes photons from the other port in Bernoulli fashion, as if they were classical particles. The output photon number is then described by the binomial distribution. If the inputs at the two ports are different number states, neither of which is the vacuum, the photon-number distribution is expressible in terms of summed and weighted products of the results for photomixing with the vacuum. If the inputs at the two ports are identical number states, and a beam splitter of transmittance \ensuremath{\tau}=(1/2 is used, the photon-number distribution assumes a simple but interesting form. It vanishes for odd photon numbers, indicating that the photons assemble in pairs at each output port. Finally, it is shown that homodyning quantum fluctuations can be reduced by using a balanced photomixer for arbitrary input states.
The generation of arbitrary single-mode quantum states from the vacuum by alternate coherent displacement and photon adding as well as the measurement of the overlap of a signal with an arbitrarily chosen quantum state are studied. With regard to implementations, the transformation of the quantum state of a traveling optical field at an array of beam splitters is considered, using conditional measurement. Allowing for arbitrary quantum states of both the input reference modes and the output reference modes on which the measurements are performed, the setup is described within the concept of two-port non-unitary transformation, and the overall non-unitary transformation operator is derived. It is shown to be a product of operators, where each operator is assigned to one of the beam splitters and can be expressed in terms of an s-ordered operator product, with s being determined by the beam splitter transmittance or reflectance. As an example we discuss the generation of and overlap measurement with Schroedinger-cat-like states.