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Frontiers in Optics

Simulating a Dynamical Schrödinger Cat State with a Focusing Beam

Pawan Khatiwada, Allison Guo, Edward T. Yu, Xiao‐Feng Qian

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We explore the equivalence between paraxial optical beam propagation and the dynamics of a 2D quantum harmonic oscillator. We demonstrate simulation of time evolution for coherent, squeezed, and Schrödinger cat states with superposed Hermite-Gaussian modes.
DOI
10.1364/fio.2025.jd1a.43

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There has been a lot of interest recently in what are referred to as Schrodinger cat states. No precise formulation of the concepts of Schrodinger cat states and classical distinguishability appears to exist. This paper aims to explore these concepts. A number of illustrative examples are presented, including a perturbed harmonic oscillator admitting coherent states with time-dependent amplitude modulation. One can convert the results on harmonic oscillators to single-mode optical systems in the standard manner. It would be interesting to see an experimental realization of these amplitude-modulated coherent states.