We study a novel optical setup which is able to select a specific Fock component from a generic input state. The device allows to synthesize number states and superpositions of few number states, and to measure the photon distribution and the density matrix of a generic input signal.
We devise a new class of criteria to certify the nonclassicality of photon- and phonon-number statistics. Our criteria extend and strengthen the broadly used Klyshko's criteria, which require knowledge of only a finite set of Fock-state probabilities. This makes the criteria well-suited to experimental implementation in realistic conditions. Moreover, we prove the completeness of our method in some scenarios, showing that, when only two or three Fock-state probabilities are known, it detects all finite distributions incompatible with classical states. In particular, we show that our criteria d…
Nonclassical properties of photon added and subtracted displaced Fock states have been studied using various witnesses of lower- and higher-order nonclassicality. Compact analytic expressions are obtained for the nonclassicality witnesses. Using those expressions, it is established that these states and the states that can be obtained as their limiting cases (except coherent states) are highly nonclassical as they show the existence of lower- and higher-order antibunching and sub-Poissonian photon statistics, in addition to the nonclassical features revealed through the Mandel $Q_M$ parameter,…
Non-Gaussian and nonclassical states and processes are already found to be important resources for performing various tasks related to quantum gravity and quantum information processing. The effect of non-Gaussianity inducing operators on the nonclassicality of quantum states has also been studied rigorously. Considering these facts, a quantitative analysis of the nonclassical and non-Gaussian features is performed here for photon added displaced Fock state, as a test case, using a set of measures like entanglement potential, Wigner Yanese skew information, Wigner logarithmic negativity and re…
A measure of nonclassicality of quantum states based on the volume of the negative part of the Wigner function is proposed. We analyze this quantity for Fock states, squeezed displaced Fock states and cat-like states defined as coherent superposition of two Gaussian wave packets.
Necessary and sufficient conditions for the nonclassicality of bosonic quantum states are formulated by introducing nonclassicality filters and nonclassicality quasiprobability distributions. Regular quasiprobabilities are constructed from characteristic functions which can be directly sampled by balanced homodyne detection. Their negativities uncover the nonclassical effects of general quantum states. The method is illustrated by visualizing the nonclassical nature of a squeezed state.
Various nonclassical and quantum phase properties of photon added then subtracted displaced Fock state have been examined systematically and rigorously. Higher-order moments of the relevant bosonic operators are computed to test the nonclassicality of the state of interest, which reduces to various quantum states (having applications in quantum optics, metrology and information processing) in different limits ranging from the coherent (classical) state to the Fock (most nonclassical) states. The nonclassical features are discussed using Klyshko's, Vogel's, and Agarwal-Tara's criteria as well a…
The main focus of this thesis is to study the nonclassical and phase properties of a family of engineered quantum states, most of which show various nonclassical features. The beauty of these states is that these states can be used to establish quantum supremacy. Earlier, a considerable amount of works has been reported on various types of quantum states and their nonclassical properties. Here, complementing the earlier works, the effect of non-Gaussianity inducing operators on the nonclassical and phase properties of displaced Fock states have been studied. This thesis includes 6 chapters. In…
Conventional coherent states (CSs) are defined in various ways. For example, CS is defined as an infinite Poissonian expansion in Fock states, as displaced vacuum state, or as an eigenket of annihilation operator. In the infinite dimensional Hilbert space, these definitions are equivalent. However, these definitions are not equivalent for the finite dimensional systems. In this work, we present a comparative description of the lower- and higher-order nonclassical properties of the finite dimensional CSs which are also referred to as qudit CSs (QCSs). For the comparison, nonclassical properties…
We investigate the dynamics of nonclassical states of light in coupled optical structures and we demonstrate a number of intriguing features associated with such arrangements. By diagonalizing the system's Hamiltonian, we show that these geometries can support eigenstates having anomalous optical intensity distribution with no classical counterpart. These features may provide new avenues towards manipulating light flow at the quantum level. By projecting the Hamiltonian operator on Hilbert subspaces spanning different numbers of photon excitations, we demonstrate that processes such as coheren…
Characteristic functions are shown to be useful for highly sensitive measurements. Redistributions of motional Fock states of a trapped atom can be directly monitored via the most fragile nonclassical part of the characteristic function. The method can also be used for decoherence measurements in optical quantum-information systems.
The behaviour of quantum open systems, and their output response, when driven by quantum input noise in a nonclassical state is of key importance to quantum technology. Here we give explicit constructions of quantum modulating filters which generate desired nonclassical states (coherent states, cat states, shaped single and multi-photon states) of quantum optical fields from vacuum noise input. The nonclassical state features (coherence, entanglement, Fock state, etc.) of the modulating filter, itself a linear passive open system, are transferred to the continuous variable output field state. …
In quantum optics, nonclassical properties of various quantum states of radiation field are frequently studied. Some of those states are finite dimensional and referred to as qudits. These states are important because of their potential applications in quantum information processing. Further, nonclassical states are those which do not have any classical counterpart. Consequently, to establish quantum supremacy, we always require nonclassical state. Recently, Sivakumar and Meher have studied the nonclassical properties of the number state filtered coherent state, and shown that the number state…
Nonclassicality filters provide a universal method to visualize the nonclassicality of arbitrary quantum states of light through negativities of a regularized Glauber-Sudarshan $P$ function, also denoted as nonclassicality quasiprobability. Such filters are introduced and analyzed for optimizing the experimental certification of nonclassical effects. An analytic filter is constructed which preserves the full information on the quantum state. For balanced homodyne detection, the number of data points is analyzed to get the negativities of the nonclassicality quasiprobability with high statistic…
Based on the measurement of quantum correlation functions, the quantum statistical properties of spectral measurements are studied for broadband radiation fields. The spectral filtering of light before its detection is compared with the direct detection followed by the spectral analysis of the recorded photocurrents. As an example, the squeezing spectra of the atomic resonance fluorescence are studied for both types of filtering procedures. The conditions for which the detection of the nonclassical signatures of the radiation is possible are analyzed. For the considered example, photocurrent f…
We demonstrate, theoretically and experimentally, that statistical mixtures of the vacuum state |0> and the single-photon Fock state |1> are nonclassical according to the Vogel criterion (W. Vogel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1849 (2000)), regardless of the vacuum fraction. The ensembles are synthesized via conditional measurements on biphotons generated by means of parametric downconversion, and their quadrature statistics are measured using balanced homodyne detection. A comparative review of various quantum state nonclassicality criteria is presented.
A possible way of generating nonclassical states of light, especially non-Gaussian states, is via the truncation of a given state in the Fock basis. In recent work, we presented an alternative scheme for such quantum scissors [Phys. Rev. A 104, 033715 (2021)], employing a nondegenerate parametric amplifier, a beam splitter and photodetectors. An advantage of this setup is that it does not require the generation of Fock states beforehand, as in previous proposals. Here we extend this treatment to mixed input states. We show the possibilities of generating truncated states with either a maximum …
We investigate the photon induced tunneling phenomena in a photonic crystal cavity containing a strongly coupled quantum dot and describe how this tunneling can be used to generate photon states consisting mainly of a particular Fock state. Additionally, we study experimentally the photon-induced tunneling as a function of excitation laser power and frequency and show the signature of second rung of the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian in the observed photon-statistics.
We briefly review the ideas that have shaped modern optics and have led to various applications of light ranging from spectroscopy to astrophysics, and street lights to quantum communication. The review is primarily focused on the modern applications of classical light and nonclassical light. Specific attention has been given to the applications of squeezed, antibunched, and entangled states of radiation field. Applications of Fock states (especially single photon states) in the field of quantum communication are also discussed.
We develop a technique for generating multi-photon 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, anti- and super-bunched 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 p…
Based on the interaction between the radiation field and a superconductor, we propose a way to engineer quantum states using a SQUID charge qubit inside a microcavity. This device can act as a deterministic single photon source as well as generate any Fock states and an arbitrary superposition of Fock states for the cavity field. The controllable interaction between the cavity field and the qubit can be realized by the tunable gate voltage and classical magnetic field applied to the SQUID.
Nonclassical motional states of matter are of interest both from a fundamental perspective but also for their potential technological applications as resources in various quantum processing tasks such as quantum teleportation, sensing, communication, and computation. In this work we explore the motional effects of a harmonically trapped, excited two-level emitter coupled to a one-dimensional (1D) photonic system. As the emitter decays it experiences a momentum recoil that entangles its motion with the emitted photon pulse. In the long-time limit the emitter relaxes to its electronic ground sta…
Conventional Glauber coherent states (CS) can be defined in several equivalent ways, e.g., by displacing the vacuum or, explicitly, by their infinite Poissonian expansion in Fock states. It is well known that these definitions become inequivalent if applied to finite $d$-level systems (qudits). We present a comparative Wigner-function description of the qudit CS defined (i) by the action of the truncated displacement operator on the vacuum and (ii) by the Poissonian expansion in Fock states of the Glauber CS truncated at $(d-1)$-photon Fock state. These states can be generated from a classical…
Number state filtered coherent states are a class of nonclassical states obtained by removing one or more number states from a coherent state. Phase sensitivity of an interferometer is enhanced if these nonclassical states are used as input states. The optimal phase sensitivity, which is related to the quantum Cramer-Rao bound (QCRB) for the input state, improves beyond the standard quantum limit. It is argued that removal of more than one suitable number state leads to better phase sensitivity. As an important limiting case in this context, the even and odd coherent states, where the odd and …
The ground state of quantum Rabi model (QRM) exhibits rich nonclassical states including squeezed state, cat state, and entangled state in different parameter regimes. In this paper, we firstly use the polaron picture to figure out the process of superradiant phase transition (SPT) in view of the nonclassical states. According to the polaron wave functions, the squeezed state extends to whole parameter regimes, and a small but non-zero weighted antipolaron is necessary to form novel semi-cat states. Moreover, the behavior of superradiance in the QRM can be viewed as the same displacement of th…
We demonstrate the generation of multi-photon quantum states of light by cavity-enhanced parametric down-conversion in the high-repetition-rate pulsed regime. An external enhancement cavity resonant with the spectral comb of modes of a mode-locked pump laser provides a coherent build-up of the pump intensity and greatly enhances the parametric gain without sacrificing its high repetition rate and comb structure. We probe the parametric gain enhancement by the conditional generation and tomographic analysis of two-photon Fock states. Besides its potential impact to efficiently generate highly-n…
We describe a nonlinear interferometric setup to perform a complete optical Bell measurement, i.e. to unambigously discriminate the four polarization entangled EPR-Bell photon pairs. The scheme is robust against detector inefficiency.
A standard method to obtain information on a quantum state is to measure marginal distributions along many different axes in phase space, which forms a basis of quantum state tomography. We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a general framework to manifest nonclassicality by observing a single marginal distribution only, which provides a novel insight into nonclassicality and a practical applicability to various quantum systems. Our approach maps the 1-dim marginal distribution into a factorized 2-dim distribution by multiplying the measured distribution or the vacuum-state d…
We demonstrate experimentally the simultaneous generation and detection of two types of continuous variable nonclassical states from one type-0 phase-matching optical parametric amplification (OPA) and subsequent two ring filter cavities (RFCs). The output field of the OPA includes the baseband ω0 and sideband modes ω0+/-nωf subjects to the cavity resonance condition, which are separated by two cascaded RFCs. The first RFC resonates with half the pump wavelength ω0 and the transmitted baseband component is a squeezed state. The reflected fields of the first RFC, including the sideband modes ω0…
The observation of genuine quantum features of nano-mechanical motion is a key goal for both fundamental and applied quantum science. To this end, a promising approach is the stabilization of nonclassical features in the presence of dissipation, by means of the tunable coupling with a photonic environment. Here we present a scheme that combines dissipative squeezing with a mechanical nonlinearity to stabilize arbitrary approximations of (displaced) mechanical Fock state of any number. We consider an optomechanical system driven by three control lasers--at the cavity resonance and at the two me…
We consider preparation of nonclassical oscillatory states in a degenerate parametric oscillator combined with phase modulation. In this scheme intracavity oscillatory mode is excited by train of Gaussian laser pulses through degenerate down-conversion process and phase modulation element inserted in a cavity leads to anharmonicity of oscillatory mode. We demonstrate production of nonclassical oscillatory states with two-fold symmetry in phase-space including the superposition of Fock states and quantum localized states on the level of few excitation numbers and in over-transient dissipative r…
Generation of nonclassical light suitable for interaction with atoms corresponds to a crucial goal pursued across the broad quantum optics community. We present the generation of nonclassical photon pairs using the process of spontaneous four-wave mixing in warm atomic vapor with an unprecedentedly high degree of nonclassical photon correlations. We show how the unique combination of excitation of atoms in the proximity of the vapor cell viewport, single excitation laser beam, double-$Λ$ energy level scheme, auxiliary optical pumping, and particular optical filtering setups, allow for the spec…
Superradiance in an ensemble of atoms leads to the collective enhancement of radiation in a particular mode shared by the atoms in their spontaneous decay from an excited state. The quantum aspects of this phenomenon are highlighted when such collective enhancement is observed in the emission of a single quantum of light. Here we report a further step in exploring experimentally the nonclassical features of superradiance by implementing the process not only with single excitations, but also in a two-excitations state. Particularly we measure and theoretically model the wave-packets correspondi…
We put forward a deterministic dissipative protocol to prepare phonon Fock states in nonlinear quantum optomechanical devices. The system is composed of a mechanical mode interacting with an optical field via radiation pressure, whereas the light mode is laser-driven in the resolved blue-sideband regime. To keep our results tractable, we have switched to an interaction picture in a displaced basis, where the effective Hamiltonian exhibits the selective photon-phonon interaction explicitly. After proper parameter adjustment and similarly to cavity-cooling schemes, the quantum evolution allows s…
The multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model is investigated and applications in quantum information science are explored. Considering the strong atom-field coupling regime and an $N$-photon interaction, a nonlinear driving field can perform an arbitrary rotation in the Fock space of the cavity mode involving the vacuum and an $M$-Fock state, with $M<N$. Besides, driving the cavity mode with a linear coherent field (superposition of many Fock states), only the cavity states within the Fock subspace {$|0\rangle,|1\rangle,..., |N-1\rangle$} can be populated, i.e., we show how to implement a Fock state …
Engineering quantum states of light represents a crucial task in the vast majority of photonic quantum technology applications. Direct manipulation of the number of photons in the light signal, such as single-photon subtraction and addition, proved to be an efficient strategy for the task. Here we propose an adaptive multi-photon subtraction scheme where a particular subtraction task is conditioned by all previous subtraction events in order to maximize the probability of successful subtraction. We theoretically illustrate this technique on the model example of conversion of Fock states via ph…
We demonstrate a Fock-state filter which is capable of preferentially blocking single photons over photon pairs. The large conditional nonlinearities are based on higher-order quantum interference, using linear optics, an ancilla photon, and measurement. We demonstrate that the filter acts coherently by using it to convert unentangled photon pairs to a path-entangled state. We quantify the degree of entanglement by transforming the path information to polarisation information, applying quantum state tomography we measure a tangle of T=(20+/-9)%.
We present a scheme of quantum state truncation in the Fock basis (quantum scissors), based on the combined action of a nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier and a beamsplitter. Differently from previously proposed linear-optics-based quantum scissors devices, which depend on reliable Fock states sources, our scheme requires only readily available Gaussian states, such as coherent states inputs (vacuum state included). A truncated state is generated after performing photodetections in the global state. We find that, depending on which output ports each of the two photodetectors is positio…
Generation of nonclassical light is an essential tool for quantum optics research and applications in quantum information technology. We present realization of the source of nonclassically correlated photon pairs based on the process of spontaneous four-wave-mixing in warm atomic vapor. Atoms are excited only by a single laser beam in retro-reflected configuration and narrowband frequency filtering is employed for selection of correlated photon pairs. Nonclassicality of generated light fields is proved by analysis of their statistical properties. Measured parameters of the presented source pro…
The generation of heralded pure Fock states via spontaneous parametric down conversion (PDC) relies on perfect photon-number correlations in the output modes. Correlations in any other degree of freedom, however, degrade the purity of the heralded state. In this paper, we investigate spectral entanglement between the two output modes of a periodically poled waveguide. With the intent of generating heralded 1- and 2-photon Fock states, we expand the output state of the PDC to second order in photon number. We explore the effects of spectral filtering and inefficient detection, of the heralding …
We propose a setup capable of generating Fock states of a single mode radiation field. The scheme is based on coupling the signal field to a ring cavity through cross-Kerr phase modulation, and on conditional ON-OFF photodetection at the output cavity mode. The same setup allows to prepare selected superpositions of Fock states and entangled two-mode states. Remarkably, the detector's quantum efficiency does not affect the reliability of the state synthesis.
The effect of two quantum state engineering processes that can be used to burn hole at vacuum in the photon number distribution of quantum states of radiation field are compared using various witnesses of lower- and higher-order nonclassicality as well as a measure of nonclassicality. Specifically, the witnesses of nonclassical properties due to the effect of vacuum state filtration and a single photon addition on an even coherent state, binomial state and Kerr state are investigated using the criteria of lower- and higher-order antibunching, squeezing and sub-Poissonian photon statistics. Fur…