We show the experimental observation of quantum states of light exhibiting nonclassical features obtained by single photon excitation of a thermal state. Such single-photon-added thermal states are the result of the single action of the creation operator on a mixed state that can be fully described classically. They show different degree of nonclassicality depending on the mean photon number of the original thermal state. The generated state is characterized by means of ultra-fast homodyne detection which allows us to reconstruct its density matrix and Wigner function by quantum tomography. We demonstrate the nonclassical behavior of single-photon added thermal states by an analysis of the negativity of the Wigner function.
KEYWORDS: Homodyne detection, Single photon, Tomography, Interferometers, Photons, Signal detection, Sensors, Michelson interferometers, Single photon detectors, Quantum information
We present a review of our recent studies concerning remotely prepared entangled bits (ebits) made of a single photon coherently delocalized between two well-separated temporal modes (or time bins). The preparation scheme represents a remotely tunable source for tailoring arbitrary ebits, whether maximally or non-maximally entangled, which is highly desirable for applications in quantum information technology. The remotely prepared ebit is analyzed by performing both single-mode and two-mode homodyne tomography with the ultra-fast balanced homodyne detection scheme recently developed in our lab. Beside the non-classical behavior typical of single-photon Fock states (negative values around the origin), the reconstructed two-mode Wigner function is found to be characterized by an intriguing phase and by correlations between the two distant time bins sharing the single photon.
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