Catching the elementary step of excitation of a coherent light state by a single photon
Year: 2005
Authors: Bellini M., Zavatta A., Viciani S.
Autors Affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy;
European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Firenze, Italy;
Department of Physics, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy
Abstract: A new class of non-classical light states has been experimentally generated and their complete phase-space characterization has been achieved by quantum homodyne tomography. Such states are produced by the action of the photon creation operator on a coherent light field and are thus the result of the elementary excitation process of a classical field by a single quantum. Being intermediate between a single-photon Fock state and a coherent one, they o er the unique opportunity to closely follow the smooth evolution between the particle-like and the wave-like behavior of the light field.
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KeyWords: Coherent states; Fock states; Quantum tomography; Single photons; Wigner function; Photons; Quantum theory; Tomography, Coherent states; Fock states; Single photons, Coherent light