2014/11/27 by Gaia Donati, Tim J. Bartley, Xian-Min Jin +6 · 48 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) #Coherence time #Coherent states #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Context (archaeology) #Continuous variable #Detector #Direct-conversion receiver #Field (mathematics) #Fock space #Fock state #Homodyne detection #Mathematics #Optics #Photon #Photon counting #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #Statistical physics #Statistics #Wave–particle duality #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms6584
published in Nature Communications 5(1), 5584 (Nature Portfolio) · 19 pages, 12 figures (arXiv version) -- Supplementary Figure 7 modified and minor typos fixed
openalex publication_date 2014/11/27 · arxiv created 2015/06/15 · arxiv updated 2015/06/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Quantum properties of optical modes are typically assessed by observing their photon statistics or the distribution of their quadratures. Both particle- and wave-like behaviours deliver important information, and each may be used as a resource in quantum-enhanced technologies. Weak-field homodyne detection provides a scheme which combines the wave- and particle-like descriptions. Here we show that it is possible to observe a wave-like property such as the optical coherence across Fock basis states in the detection statistics derived from discrete photon counting. We experimentally demonstrate these correlations using two weak-field homodyne detectors on each mode of two classes of two-mode entangled states. Furthermore, we theoretically describe the response of weak-field homodyne detection on a two-mode squeezed state in the context of generalised Bell inequalities. Our work demonstrates the potential of this technique as a tool for hybrid continuous/discrete-variable protocols on a phenomenon that explicitly combines both approaches.