Direct Measurement of Kirkwood-Rihaczek distribution for spatial properties of coherent light beam

We present direct measurement of Kirkwood-Rihaczek (KR) distribution for spatial properties of coherent light beam in terms of position and momentum (angle) coordinates. We employ a two-local oscillator (LO) balanced heterodyne detection (BHD) to simultaneously extract distribution of transverse position and momentum of a light beam. The two-LO BHD could measure KR distribution for any complex wave field (including quantum mechanical wave function) without applying tomography methods (inverse Radon transformation). Transformation of KR distribution to Wigner, Glauber Sudarshan P- and Husimi or Q- distributions in spatial coordinates are illustrated through experimental data. The direct measurement of KR distribution could provide local information of wave field, which is suitable for studying particle properties of a quantum system. While Wigner function is suitable for studying wave properties such as interference, and hence provides nonlocal information of the wave field. The method developed here can be used for exploring spatial quantum state for quantum mapping and computing, optical phase space imaging for biomedical applications.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

Quantum teleportation of optical images with frequency conversion

We describe a new version of continuous variables quantum holographic teleportation of optical images. Unlike the previously proposed scheme, it is based on the continuous variables quantum entanglement between the light fields of different frequencies and allows for the wavelength conversion between the original and the teleported images. The frequency tunable holographic teleportation protocol can be used as a part of light-matter interface in parallel quantum information processing and parallel quantum memoryComment: 4 pages, 3 Postscript figures, RevTeX

Quantum limits of super-resolution in reconstruction of optical objects

We investigate analytically and numerically the role of quantum fluctuations in reconstruction of optical objects from diffraction-limited images. Taking as example of an input object two closely spaced Gaussian peaks we demonstrate that one can improve the resolution in the reconstructed object over the classical Rayleigh limit. We show that the ultimate quantum limit of resolution in such reconstruction procedure is determined not by diffraction but by the signal-to-noise ratio in the input object. We formulate a quantitative measure of super-resolution in terms of the optical point-spread function of the system.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Physical Review A e-mail: [email protected]

Quantum parallel dense coding of optical images

We propose quantum dense coding protocol for optical images. This protocol extends the earlier proposed dense coding scheme for continuous variables [S.L.Braunstein and H.J.Kimble, Phys.Rev.A 61, 042302 (2000)] to an essentially multimode in space and time optical quantum communication channel. This new scheme allows, in particular, for parallel dense coding of non-stationary optical images. Similar to some other quantum dense coding protocols, our scheme exploits the possibility of sending a classical message through only one of the two entangled spatially-multimode beams, using the other one as a reference system. We evaluate the Shannon mutual information for our protocol and find that it is superior to the standard quantum limit. Finally, we show how to optimize the performance of our scheme as a function of the spatio-temporal parameters of the multimode entangled light and of the input images.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX4. Submitted to the Special Issue on Quantum Imaging in Journal of Modern Optic

Tripartite entanglement in parametric down-conversion with spatially-structured pump

Most investigations of multipartite entanglement have been concerned with temporal modes of the electromagnetic field, and have neglected its spatial structure. We present a simple model which allows to generate tripartite entanglement between spatial modes by parametric down-conversion with two symmetrically-tilted plane waves serving as a pump. The characteristics of this entanglement are investigated. We also discuss the generalization of our scheme to 2N+1-partite entanglement using 2N symmetrically-tilted plane pump waves. Another interesting feature is the possibility of entanglement localization in just two spatial modes.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Quantum temporal imaging: application of a time lens to quantum optics

We consider application of a temporal imaging system, based on the sum-frequency generation, to a nonclassical, in particular, squeezed optical temporal waveform. We analyze the restrictions on the pump and the phase matching condition in the summing crystal, necessary for preserving the quantum features of the initial waveform. We show that modification of the notion of the field of view in the quantum case is necessary, and that the quantum field of view is much narrower than the classical one for the same temporal imaging system. These results are important for temporal stretching and compressing of squeezed fields, used in quantum-enhanced metrology and quantum communications.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Decoherence of a two-state atom driven by coherent light

Recent studies of the decoherence induced by the quantum nature of the laser field driving a two-state atom [J. Gea-Banacloche, Phys. Rev. A 65, 022308 (2002); S. J. van Enk and H. J. Kimble, Quantum Inf. and Comp. 2, 1 (2002)] have been questioned by Itano [W. M. Itano, Phys. Rev. A 68, 046301 (2003)] and the proposal made that all decoherence is due to spontaneous emission. We analyze the problem within the formalism of cascaded open quantum systems. Our conclusions agree with the Itano proposal. We show that the decoherence, nevertheless, may be divided into two parts--that due to forwards scattering and to scattering out of the laser mode. Previous authors attribute the former to the quantum nature of the laser field.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.