Catching the elementary step of excitation of a coherent light state by a single photon

Bellini M., Zavatta A., Viciani S.

Bellini M., Zavatta A., Viciani S.

Marco Bellini, Alessandro Zavatta, Silvia Viciani

A new class of non-classical light states has been experimentally generated and their complete phase-space characterization has been achieved by quantum homodyne tomography. Such states are produced by the action of the photon creation operator on a coherent light field and are thus the result of the elementary excitation process of a classical field by a single quantum. Being intermediate between a single-photon Fock state and a coherent one, they offer the unique opportunity to closely follow the smooth evolution between the particle-like and the wave-like behavior of the light field.

Bellini M., Zavatta A., Viciani S.

A new class of non-classical light states has been experimentally generated and their complete phase-space characterization has been achieved by quantum homodyne tomography. Such states are produced by the action of the photon creation operator on a coherent light eld and are thus the result of the elementary excitation process of a classical eld by a single quantum. Being intermediate between a single-photon Fock state and a coherent one, they o er the unique opportunity to closely follow the smooth evolution between the particle-like and the wave-like behavior of the light eld.

Alessandro Zavatta, Silvia Viciani, Marco Bellini

When a single quantum of electromagnetic field excitation is added to the same spatiotemporal mode of a coherent state, a new field state is generated that exhibits intermediate properties between those of the two parents. Such a single-photon-added coherent state is obtained by the action of the photon creation operator on a coherent state and can thus be regarded as the result of the most elementary excitation process of a classical light field. Here we present and describe in depth the experimental realization of such states and their complete analysis by means of a novel ultrafast, time-domain, quantum homodyne tomography technique clearly revealing their nonclassical character.

Petr Steindl, Henk Snijders, G. Westra +9 more