Direct, Loss-Tolerant Characterization of Nonclassical Photon Statistics

We experimentally investigate a method of directly characterizing the photon number distribution of nonclassical light beams that is tolerant to losses and makes use only of standard binary detectors. This is achieved in a single measurement by calibrating the detector using some small amount of prior information about the source. We demonstrate the technique on a freely propagating heralded two-photon number state created by conditional detection of a two-mode squeezed state generated by a parametric downconverter.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Measurement of geometric phase for mixed states using single photon interferometry

Geometric phase may enable inherently fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, due to potential decoherence effects, it is important to understand how such phases arise for {\it mixed} input states. We report the first experiment to measure mixed-state geometric phases in optics, using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and polarization mixed states that are produced in two different ways: decohering pure states with birefringent elements; and producing a nonmaximally entangled state of two photons and tracing over one of them, a form of remote state preparation.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. 4 pages, 3 figure

Fiber-assisted detection with photon number resolution

We report the development of a photon-number resolving detector based on a fiber-optical setup and a pair of standard avalanche photodiodes. The detector is capable of resolving individual photon numbers, and operates on the well-known principle by which a single mode input state is split into a large number (eight) of output modes. We reconstruct the photon statistics of weak coherent input light from experimental data, and show that there is a high probability of inferring the input photon number from a measurement of the number of detection events on a single run.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; Submitted for publicatio

Photon number resolving detection using time-multiplexing

Detectors that can resolve photon number are needed in many quantum information technologies. In order to be useful in quantum information processing, such detectors should be simple, easy to use, and be scalable to resolve any number of photons, as the application may require great portability such as in quantum cryptography. Here we describe the construction of a time-multiplexed detector, which uses a pair of standard avalanche photodiodes operated in Geiger mode. The detection technique is analysed theoretically and tested experimentally using a pulsed source of weak coherent light.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted to Journal of Modern Optic

Generation and characterisation of multiphoton nonclassical states of light

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo