We present an efficient and robust method for the reconstruction of photon number distributions by using solely thermal noise as a probe. The method uses a minimal number of pre-calibrated quantum devices, only one on/off single-photon detector is sufficient. Feasibility of the method is demonstrated by the experimental inference of single-photon, thermal and two-photon states. The method is stable to experimental imperfections and provides a direct, user-friendly quantum diagnostics tool.
@article{arxiv.1409.8076,
title = {Tomography by noise},
author = {G. Harder and D. Mogilevtsev and N. Korolkova and Ch. Silberhorn},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.8076},
year = {2014}
}