Conditional preparation of states containing a definite number of photons

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a Bayesian-based method for conditionally generating photon-number states, demonstrating robustness against detector loss and the ability to produce sub-Poissonian photon distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian approach to heralding photon-number states using time-multiplexed detectors, showing improved robustness and state quality under loss conditions.

Findings

Sub-Poissonian photon-number distributions can be achieved despite detector loss.

Multimode fields are more robust against detector inefficiencies than single-mode fields.

The technique effectively creates photon-number states using existing detector technology.

Abstract

A technique for conditionally creating single- or multimode photon-number states is analyzed using Bayesian theory. We consider the heralded N-photon states created from the photons produced by an unseeded optical parametric amplifier when the heralding detector is the time-multiplexed photon-number-resolving detector recently demonstrated by Fitch, et al. [Phys. Rev. A 68, 043814 (2003).] and simultaneously by Achilles, et al. [Opt. Lett. 28, 2387 (2003).]. We find that even with significant loss in the heralding detector, fields with sub-Poissonian photon-number distributions can be created. We also show that heralded multimode fields created using this technique are more robust against detector loss than are single-mode fields.