We theoretically explore the properties of heralded number states including up to three photons that are generated from single-mode twin beams. We investigate the effects of different parameters involved in the state preparation by using the fidelity, normalized second-order factorial moment of photon number for the heralded state (gh(2)), and photon-number parity as figures of merit. Especially, the photon-number parity offers a practical and robust tool for inferring the target state quality by capturing the contamination of all undesired photon-number contributions. We focus on expressing our results in terms of experimentally easily accessible parameters such as the coincidences-to-accidentals ratio and the detection efficiencies. Our results identify the optimal parameter regions for generating high quality photon-number states by heralding and provide useful insights for advancing their use in quantum technologies.
@article{arxiv.2502.11631,
title = {Advancing the heralded photon-number-state characterization by understanding the interplay of experimental settings},
author = {Daniel Borrero Landazabal and Kaisa Laiho},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.11631},
year = {2025}
}