Probing the Negative Wigner Function of a Pulsed Single Photon Point by Point

Kaisa Laiho, Katiúscia N. Cassemiro, David Gross, and Christine Silberhorn
Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 253603 – Published 14 December 2010

Abstract

We investigate quantum properties of pulsed light fields point by point in phase space. We probe the negative region of the Wigner function of a single photon generated by the means of waveguided parametric down conversion. This capability is achieved by employing loss-tolerant photon-number resolving detection, allowing us to directly observe the oscillations of the photon statistics in dependence of applied displacements in phase space. Our scheme is highly mode sensitive and can reveal the single-mode character of the signal state.

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  • Received 24 September 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.253603

© 2010 The American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Kaisa Laiho1,*, Katiúscia N. Cassemiro1, David Gross2, and Christine Silberhorn1,3

  • 1Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Günther-Scharowsky-straße 1/Building 24, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
  • 2Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
  • 3Applied Physics, University of Paderborn, Warburgerstraße 100, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

  • *kaisa.laiho@mpl.mpg.de

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Vol. 105, Iss. 25 — 17 December 2010

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