English

Planck Spectroscopy and the Quantum Noise of Microwave Beam Splitters

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2010-09-30 v1 Superconductivity Quantum Physics

Abstract

We use a correlation function analysis of the field quadratures to characterize both the black body radiation emitted by a 50 Ohm load resistor and the quantum properties of two types of beam splitters in the microwave regime. To this end, we first study vacuum fluctuations as a function of frequency in a Planck spectroscopy experiment and then measure the covariance matrix of weak thermal states. Our results provide direct experimental evidence that vacuum fluctuations represent the fundamental minimum quantum noise added by a beam splitter to any given input signal.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1003.3194,
  title  = {Planck Spectroscopy and the Quantum Noise of Microwave Beam Splitters},
  author = {M. Mariantoni and E. P. Menzel and F. Deppe and M. A. Araque Caballero and A. Baust and T. Niemczyk and E. Hoffmann and E. Solano and A. Marx and R. Gross},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1003.3194},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

5 pages, 4 figures