Measurement of the transverse spatial quantum state of light at the single-photon level
Quantum Physics
2009-11-11 v1
Abstract
We present an experimental method to measure the transverse spatial quantum state of an optical field in coordinate space at the single-photon level. The continuous-variable measurements are made with a photon-counting, parity-inverting Sagnac interferometer based on all-reflecting optics. The technique provides a large numerical aperture without distorting the shape of the wave front, does not introduce astigmatism, and allows for characterization of fully or partially coherent optical fields at the single-photon level. Measurements of the transverse spatial Wigner functions for highly attenuated coherent beams are presented and compared to theoretical predictions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0507142,
title = {Measurement of the transverse spatial quantum state of light at the single-photon level},
author = {Brian J. Smith and Bryan Killett and M. G. Raymer and I. A. Walmsley and K. Banaszek},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0507142},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
3 pages, 2 figures