Quantum tomography of mesoscopic superpositions of radiation states

Abstract

We show the feasibility of a tomographic reconstruction of Schr\"{o}dinger cat states generated according to the scheme proposed by S. Song, C.M. Caves and B. Yurke [Phys. Rev. A 41, 5261 (1990)]. We present a technique that tolerates realistic values for quantum efficiency at photodetectors. The measurement can be achieved by a standard experimental setup.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.; 4 pages including 6 ps figure