6 research outputs found
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
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