Quantum Decoherence of Single-Photon Counters

The interaction of a quantum system with the environment leads to the so-called quantum decoherence. Beyond its fundamental significance, the understanding and the possible control of this dynamics in various scenarios is a key element for mastering quantum information processing. Here we report the quantitative probing of what can be called the quantum decoherence of detectors, a process reminiscent of the decoherence of quantum states in the presence of coupling with a reservoir. We demonstrate how the quantum features of two single-photon counters vanish under the influence of a noisy environment. We thereby experimentally witness the transition between the full-quantum operation of the measurement device to the "semi-classical regime", described by a positive Wigner function. The exact border between these two regimes is explicitely determined and measured experimentally

Independent nonclassical tests for states and measurements in the same experiment

We show that one single experiment can test simultaneously and independently both the nonclassicality of states and measurements by the violation or fulfillment of classical bounds on the statistics. Nonideal measurements affected by imperfections can be characterized by two bounds depending on whether we test the ideal measurement or the real one.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of 17th CEWQO 201