Mesoscopic States of Light for the Detection of Weakly Absorbing Objects

Over the past twenty years, different imaging techniques have been proposed and implemented in order to reconstruct the images of different kinds of objects, including faint ones. In this work, we exploit the mesoscopic intensity domain to prove that the determination of the transmittance efficiency of an object can be obtained by considering the calculation of the noise reduction factor in the case of a multi-mode pseudothermal state divided at a balanced beam splitter and detected by photon-number-resolving detectors. The good quality of the experimental results suggests that this strategy can be extended to the determination of a matrix of different transmittance values by means of arrays of photon-number-resolving detectors

Gaussian and Non-Gaussian operations on non-Gaussian state: engineering non-Gaussianity

Multiple photon subtraction applied to a displaced phase-averaged coherent state, which is a non-Gaussian classical state, produces conditional states with a non trivial (positive) Glauber-Sudarshan $P$-representation. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that, despite its simplicity, this class of conditional states cannot be fully characterized by direct detection of photon numbers. In particular, the non-Gaussianity of the state is a characteristics that must be assessed by phase-sensitive measurements. We also show that the non-Gaussianity of conditional states can be manipulated by choosing suitable conditioning values and composition of phase-averaged states

Experimental quantification of non-Gaussianity of phase-randomized coherent states

We present the experimental investigation of the non-Gaussian nature of some mixtures of Fock states by reconstructing their Wigner function and exploiting two recently introduced measures of non-Gaussianity. In particular, we demonstrate the consistency between the different approaches and the monotonicity of the two measures for states belonging to the class of phase randomized coherent states. Moreover, we prove that the exact behavior of one measure with respect to the other depends on the states under investigation and devise possible criteria to discriminate which measure is more useful for the characterization of the states in realistic applications.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Homodyne-like detection for state-discrimination in the presence of phase noise

We propose an innovative strategy to discriminate between two coherent states affected by either uniform or gaussian phase noise. The strategy is based on a homodyne-like detection scheme with photon-number-resolving detectors in the regime of low-intensity local oscillator. The experimental implementation of the detection scheme involves two hybrid photodetectors, whose outputs are used in post processing to calculate the shot-by-shot photon-number difference. The performance of this strategy is quantified in terms of the error probability in discriminating the noisy coherent signals as a function of the characteristic noise parameters.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Towards underwater quantum communication in the mesoscopic intensity regime

The problem of secure underwater communication can take advantage of the exploitation of quantum resources and novel quantum technologies. At variance with the current experiments performed at the single photon level, here we propose a different scenario involving mesoscopic twin-beam states of light and two classes of commercial photon-number-resolving detectors. We prove that twin-beam states remain nonclassical even if the signal propagates in tubes filled with water, while the idler is transmitted in free space. We also demonstrate that from the study of the nonclassicality information about the loss and noise sources affecting the transmission channels can be successfully extracted

Novel scheme for secure data transmission based on mesoscopic twin beams and photon-number-resolving detectors

Quantum resources can improve the quality and security of data transmission. A novel communication protocol based on the use of mesoscopic twin-beam (TWB) states of light is proposed and discussed. The message sent by Alice to Bob is encoded in binary single-mode thermal states having two possible mean values, both smaller than the mean value of the TWB. Such thermal states are alternately superimposed to the portion of TWB sent to Bob. We demonstrate that in the presence of an eavesdropping attack that intercepts and substitutes part of the signal with a thermal noise, Bob can still successfully decrypt the message by evaluating the noise reduction factor for detected photons. The protocol opens new perspectives in the exploitation of quantum states of light for applications to Quantum Communication

Absolute calibration of photon-number-resolving detectors with an analog output using twin beams

A method for absolute calibration of a photon-number resolving detector producing analog signals as the output is developed using a twin beam. The method gives both analog-to-digital conversion parameters and quantum detection efficiency for the photon fields. Characteristics of the used twin beam are also obtained. A simplified variant of the method applicable to fields with high signal to noise ratios and suitable for more intense twin beams is suggested.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Characterization of phase-averaged coherent states

We present the full characterization of phase-randomized or phase-averaged coherent states, a class of states exploited in communication channels and in decoy state-based quantum key distribution protocols. In particular, we report on the suitable formalism to analytically describe the main features of this class of states and on their experimental investigation, that results in agreement with theory. We also show the results we obtained by manipulating the phase-averaged coherent states with linear optical elements and testify their good quality by employing some non-Gaussianity measures and the concept of mutual information.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure