Nonclassical photocounting statistics with a single on-off detector

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that by adding controlled attenuation to a single on-off detector, it becomes capable of revealing nonclassical properties of light, overcoming its inherent limitations.

Contribution

Introducing a simple modification with controlled attenuation allows on-off detectors to identify nonclassical light, which was previously impossible with standard setups.

Findings

Controlled attenuation enables nonclassicality detection.

Standard on-off detectors cannot distinguish nonclassical light.

Modified detectors reveal nonclassical properties effectively.

Abstract

Any single on-off photocounter, which can only detect the presence or absence of photons without discriminating their number, is not capable of identifying nonclassical nature of light. This limitation arises because any photocounting statistics obtained with such a detector can be easily reproduced with coherent states of a light mode. We show that a simple modification of an on-off detector -- introducing controlled attenuation as a tunable setting -- enables such detectors to reveal nonclassical properties of radiation fields.