Conditional production of superpositions of coherent states with inefficient photon detection
- Center for Quantum Computer Technology, Department of Physics, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld 4072 (Australia)
- School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom)
It is shown that a linear superposition of two macroscopically distinguishable optical coherent states can be generated using a single photon source and simple all-optical operations. Weak squeezing on a single photon, beam mixing with an auxiliary coherent state, and photon detecting with imperfect threshold detectors are enough to generate a coherent state superposition in a free propagating optical field with a large coherent amplitude ({alpha}>2) and high fidelity (F>0.99). In contrast to all previous schemes to generate such a state, our scheme does not need photon number resolving measurements nor Kerr-type nonlinear interactions. Furthermore, it is robust to detection inefficiency and exhibits some resilience to photon production inefficiency.
- OSTI ID:
- 20645828
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 70, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.70.020101; (c) 2004 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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