Detecting the spatial quantum uncertainty of bosonic systems

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum measurement theory for bosonic particles, focusing on photon beams, analyzing how quantum effects, detector imperfections, and pixel size influence spatial beam measurements, with implications for experimental quantum optics.

Contribution

It introduces an analytic framework for discretized photon measurements of spatial beam properties, incorporating detector imperfections and comparing with prior beam width noise theories.

Findings

Quantum limits on spatial measurements of light beams.

Detector imperfections significantly affect photon counting distributions.

Numerical simulations suggest feasible experimental implementations.

Abstract

We present the quantum theory of the measurement of bosonic particles by multipixel detectors. For the sake of clarity, we specialize on beams of photons. We study the measurement of different spatial beam characteristics, as position and width. The limits of these measurements are set by the quantum nature of the light field. We investigate how both, detector imperfections and finite pixel size affect the photon counting distribution. An analytic theory for the discretized measurement scheme is derived. We discuss the results and compare them to the theory presented by Chille et al. in "Quantum uncertainty in the beam width of spatial optical modes," Opt. Express 23, 32777 (2015), which investigates the beam width noise independently of the measurement system. Finally, we present numerical simulations which furnish realistic and promising predictions for possible experimental studies.