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Main Authors: Shojaee, Ezad, van Meter, James R., Mayer, Karl, Glancy, Scott, Knill, Emanuel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.00188
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author Shojaee, Ezad
van Meter, James R.
Mayer, Karl
Glancy, Scott
Knill, Emanuel
author_facet Shojaee, Ezad
van Meter, James R.
Mayer, Karl
Glancy, Scott
Knill, Emanuel
contents A general one-dimensional quantum optical mode is described by a shape in the time or frequency domain. A fundamental problem is to measure a quadrature operator of such a mode. If the shape is narrow in frequency this can be done by pulsed homodyne detection, in which the mode and a matched local oscillator (LO) interfere on a beamsplitter, whose output ports are monitored by photo-detectors. The quadrature value is proportional to the difference between the photo-detectors' signals. When the shape of the mode is broad in frequency, the lack of uniform response of the detectors across the spectrum prevents direct application of this technique. We show that pulsed homodyne detection can be generalized to broadband pulsed (BBP) homodyne detection setups with detectors such as calorimeters that detect total energy instead of total number of photons. This generalization has applications in quantum measurements of femtosecond pulses, and, speculatively, measurements of Rindler modes to verify the temperature of Unruh radiation. Like pulsed homodyne detection, BBP homodyne detection requires choosing the LO pulse such that the subtracted signal approaches the desired quadrature measurement for large LO amplitudes. A distinctive feature of the technique is that the LO pulse does not belong to the mode of the quadrature being measured. We analyze how the implemented measurement approaches an ideal quadrature measurement with growing LO amplitude. We prove that the moments of the measurement converge to the moments of the quadrature and that the measurement distributions converge weakly.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_00188
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Broadband pulsed quadrature measurements with calorimeters
Shojaee, Ezad
van Meter, James R.
Mayer, Karl
Glancy, Scott
Knill, Emanuel
Quantum Physics
A general one-dimensional quantum optical mode is described by a shape in the time or frequency domain. A fundamental problem is to measure a quadrature operator of such a mode. If the shape is narrow in frequency this can be done by pulsed homodyne detection, in which the mode and a matched local oscillator (LO) interfere on a beamsplitter, whose output ports are monitored by photo-detectors. The quadrature value is proportional to the difference between the photo-detectors' signals. When the shape of the mode is broad in frequency, the lack of uniform response of the detectors across the spectrum prevents direct application of this technique. We show that pulsed homodyne detection can be generalized to broadband pulsed (BBP) homodyne detection setups with detectors such as calorimeters that detect total energy instead of total number of photons. This generalization has applications in quantum measurements of femtosecond pulses, and, speculatively, measurements of Rindler modes to verify the temperature of Unruh radiation. Like pulsed homodyne detection, BBP homodyne detection requires choosing the LO pulse such that the subtracted signal approaches the desired quadrature measurement for large LO amplitudes. A distinctive feature of the technique is that the LO pulse does not belong to the mode of the quadrature being measured. We analyze how the implemented measurement approaches an ideal quadrature measurement with growing LO amplitude. We prove that the moments of the measurement converge to the moments of the quadrature and that the measurement distributions converge weakly.
title Broadband pulsed quadrature measurements with calorimeters
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.00188