Mode Invisibility and Single Photon Detection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to measure quantum states of light in an optical cavity with minimal disturbance, using atomic interferometry to accurately detect photon number differences.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel technique that cancels dominant transition probabilities, enabling non-invasive quantum state probing with high resolution.

Findings

Effective cancellation of transition probabilities to minimize disturbance.

High-resolution measurement of photon number differences.

Potential for non-invasive quantum state detection in optical cavities.

Abstract

We propose a technique to probe the quantum state of light in an optical cavity without significantly altering it. We minimize the interaction of the probe with the field by arranging a setting where the largest contribution to the transition probability is cancelled. We show that we obtain a very good resolution to measure photon population differences between two given Fock states by means of atomic interferometry.