Pulse characterization at the single-photon level through chronocyclic $Q$-function measurements

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Bhattacharjee, Abhinandan, Folge, Patrick, Serino, Laura, Řeháček, Jaroslav, Hradil, Zdeněk, Silberhorn, Christine, Brecht, Benjamin
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Bhattacharjee, Abhinandan
Folge, Patrick
Serino, Laura
Řeháček, Jaroslav
Hradil, Zdeněk
Silberhorn, Christine
Brecht, Benjamin
author_facet Bhattacharjee, Abhinandan
Folge, Patrick
Serino, Laura
Řeháček, Jaroslav
Hradil, Zdeněk
Silberhorn, Christine
Brecht, Benjamin
contents The characterization of the complex spectral amplitude that is, the spectrum and spectral phase, of single-photon-level light fields is a crucial capability for modern photonic quantum technologies. Since established pulse characterisation techniques are not applicable at low intensities, alternative approaches are required. Here, we demonstrate the retrieval of the complex spectral amplitude of single-photon-level light pulses through measuring their chronocyclic $Q-$function. Our approach draws inspiration from quantum state tomography by exploiting the analogy between quadrature phase space and time-frequency phase space. In the experiment, we perform time-frequency projections with a quantum pulse gate, which directly yield the chronocyclic $Q-$function. We evaluate the data with maximum likelihood estimation, which is the established technique for quantum state tomography. This yields not only an unambigious estimate of the complex spectral amplitude of the state under test that does not require any \textit{a priori} information, but also allows for, in principle, estimating the spectral-temporal coherence properties of the state. Our method accurately recovers features such as jumps in the spectral phase and is resistant against regions with zero spectral intensity, which makes it immediately beneficial also for classical pulse characterization problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_12306
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Pulse characterization at the single-photon level through chronocyclic $Q$-function measurements
Bhattacharjee, Abhinandan
Folge, Patrick
Serino, Laura
Řeháček, Jaroslav
Hradil, Zdeněk
Silberhorn, Christine
Brecht, Benjamin
Quantum Physics
The characterization of the complex spectral amplitude that is, the spectrum and spectral phase, of single-photon-level light fields is a crucial capability for modern photonic quantum technologies. Since established pulse characterisation techniques are not applicable at low intensities, alternative approaches are required. Here, we demonstrate the retrieval of the complex spectral amplitude of single-photon-level light pulses through measuring their chronocyclic $Q-$function. Our approach draws inspiration from quantum state tomography by exploiting the analogy between quadrature phase space and time-frequency phase space. In the experiment, we perform time-frequency projections with a quantum pulse gate, which directly yield the chronocyclic $Q-$function. We evaluate the data with maximum likelihood estimation, which is the established technique for quantum state tomography. This yields not only an unambigious estimate of the complex spectral amplitude of the state under test that does not require any \textit{a priori} information, but also allows for, in principle, estimating the spectral-temporal coherence properties of the state. Our method accurately recovers features such as jumps in the spectral phase and is resistant against regions with zero spectral intensity, which makes it immediately beneficial also for classical pulse characterization problems.
title Pulse characterization at the single-photon level through chronocyclic $Q$-function measurements
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.12306