Testing Bell inequalities with photon-subtracted Gaussian states

Recently, photon subtracted Gaussian states (PSGSs) were generated by several experimental groups. Those states were called "Schr\"odinger kittens" due to their similarities to superpositions of coherent states (SCSs) with small amplitudes. We compare the ideal SCSs and the PSGSs for experimental tests of certain types of Bell inequalities. In particular, we analyze the effects of the key experimental components used to generate PSGSs: mixedness of the Gaussian states, limited transmittivity of the beam splitter and the avalanche photodetector which cannot resolve photon numbers. As a result of this analysis, the degrees of mixedness and the beam splitter transmittivity that can be allowed for successful tests of Bell inequalities are revealed.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Faithful test of non-local realism with entangled coherent states

We investigate the violation of Leggett's inequality for non-local realism using entangled coherent states and various types of local measurements. We prove mathematically the relation between the violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt form of Bell's inequality and Leggett's one when tested by the same resources. For Leggett inequalities, we generalize the non-local realistic bound to systems in Hilbert spaces larger than bidimensional ones and introduce an optimization technique that allows to achieve larger degrees of violation by adjusting the local measurement settings. Our work describes the steps that should be performed to produce a self-consistent generalization of Leggett's original arguments to continuous-variable states.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Effects of squeezing on quantum nonlocality of superpositions of coherent states

We analyze effects of squeezing upon superpositions of coherent states (SCSs) and entangled coherent states (ECSs) for Bell-inequality tests. We find that external squeezing can always increase the degrees of Bell violations, if the squeezing direction is properly chosen, for the case of photon parity measurements. On the other hand, when photon on/off measurements are used, the squeezing operation can enhance the degree of Bell violations only for moderate values of amplitudes and squeezing. We point out that a significant improvement is required over currently available squeezed SCSs in order to directly demonstrate a Bell-inequality violation in a real experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Testing non-local realism with entangled coherent states

We investigate the violation of non-local realism using entangled coherent states (ECS) under nonlinear operations and homodyne measurements. We address recently proposed Leggett-type inequalities, including a class of optimized incompatibility ones and thoroughly assess the effects of detection inefficiency.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX4, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Violation of Bell's inequality using classical measurements and non-linear local operations

We find that Bell's inequality can be significantly violated (up to Tsirelson's bound) with two-mode entangled coherent states using only homodyne measurements. This requires Kerr nonlinear interactions for local operations on the entangled coherent states. Our example is a demonstration of Bell-inequality violations using classical measurements. We conclude that entangled coherent states with coherent amplitudes as small as 0.842 are sufficient to produce such violations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Production of superpositions of coherent states in traveling optical fields with inefficient photon detection

We develop an all-optical scheme to generate superpositions of macroscopically distinguishable coherent states in traveling optical fields. It non-deterministically distills coherent state superpositions (CSSs) with large amplitudes out of CSSs with small amplitudes using inefficient photon detection. The small CSSs required to produce CSSs with larger amplitudes are extremely well approximated by squeezed single photons. We discuss some remarkable features of this scheme: it effectively purifies mixed initial states emitted from inefficient single photon sources and boosts negativity of Wigner functions of quantum states.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Transfer of Nonclassical Properties from A Microscopic Superposition to Macroscopic Thermal States in The High Temperature Limit

We present several examples where prominent quantum properties are transferred from a microscopic superposition to thermal states at high temperatures. Our work is motivated by an analogy of Schrodinger's cat paradox, where the state corresponding to the virtual cat is a mixed thermal state with a large average photon number. Remarkably, quantum entanglement can be produced between thermal states with nearly the maximum Bell-inequality violation even when the temperatures of both modes approach infinity.Comment: minor corrections, acknowledgments added, Phys.Rev.Lett., in pres

Depressed clad hollow optical fiber with fundamental LP01 mode cut-off

We propose a depressed clad hollow optical fiber with fundamental (LP01) mode cut-off suitable for high power short-wavelength, especially three-level, fiber laser operation by introducing highly wavelength dependent losses at longer wavelengths. The cut-off characteristic of such fiber structure was investigated. A Yb-doped depressed clad hollow optical fiber laser generating 59.1W of output power at 1046nm with 86% of slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power was realised by placing the LP01 mode cut-off at ~1100nm

Testing quantum nonlocality by generalized quasiprobability functions

We derive a Bell inequality based on a generalized quasiprobability function which is parameterized by one non-positive real value. Two types of known Bell inequalities formulated in terms of the Wigner and Q functions are included as limiting cases. We investigate violations of our Bell inequalities for single photon entangled states and two-mode squeezed vacuum states when varying the detector efficiency. We show that the Bell inequality for the Q function allows the lowest detection efficiency for violations of local realism.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure