Multiphoton state engineering by heralded interference between single photons and coherent states

Tim J. Bartley, Gaia Donati, Justin B. Spring, Xian-Min Jin, Marco Barbieri, Animesh Datta, Brian J. Smith, and Ian A. Walmsley
Phys. Rev. A 86, 043820 – Published 15 October 2012

Abstract

We develop a technique for generating multiphoton nonclassical states via interference between coherent and Fock states using quantum catalysis. By modulating the coherent field strength, the number of catalyst photons, and the ratio of the beam splitter upon which they interfere, a wide range of nonclassical phenomena can be created, including squeezing of up to 1.25 dB, antibunched and superbunched photon statistics, and states exhibiting over 90% fidelity to displaced coherent superposition states. We perform quantum catalysis experimentally, showing tunability into the nonclassical regime. Our protocol is not limited by weak nonlinearities that underlie most known strategies of preparing multiphoton nonclassical states. Successive iterations of this protocol can lead to direct control over the weights of higher-order terms in the Fock basis, paving the way towards conditional preparation of “designer” multiphoton states for applications in quantum computation, communication, and metrology.

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  • Received 2 May 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.86.043820

©2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Tim J. Bartley1,*, Gaia Donati1, Justin B. Spring1, Xian-Min Jin1,2, Marco Barbieri1, Animesh Datta1, Brian J. Smith1, and Ian A. Walmsley1

  • 1Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
  • 2Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 117543, Singapore

  • *t.bartley1@physics.ox.ac.uk

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Vol. 86, Iss. 4 — October 2012

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