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 nondeterministically distills coherent-state superpositions (CSS's) with large amplitudes out of CSS's with small amplitudes using inefficient phot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2005-07, Vol.72 (1), Article 013801
Main Authors: Jeong, H., Lund, A. P., Ralph, T. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AMPLITUDES
ANNIHILATION OPERATORS
ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
DETECTION
EIGENSTATES
EMISSION
ENERGY LEVELS
PHOTONS
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Summary:We develop an all-optical scheme to generate superpositions of macroscopically distinguishable coherent states in traveling optical fields. It nondeterministically distills coherent-state superpositions (CSS's) with large amplitudes out of CSS's with small amplitudes using inefficient photon detection. The small CSS's required to produce CSS's 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.
ISSN:1050-2947
1094-1622
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.72.013801