https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170243
Effective quantum efficiency in the pulsed homodyne detection of a n-photon state
Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique Théorique et Appliquée,
91403 Orsay, France
Corresponding author: a philippe.grangier@iota.u-psud.fr
Received:
27
July
2000
Revised:
29
November
2000
Published online: 15 April 2001
Homodyne detection can be used to perform measurements on various quantum states of the light, such as conditional single photon states produced by parametric fluorescence processes. In the pulsed regime, the time and frequency overlap between the single photon wave packet and the local oscillator field plays a crucial role. We show in this paper that this overlap can be characterized by an effective quantum efficiency, which is explicitly calculated in various situations of experimental interest.
PACS: 42.50.Dv – Nonclassical field states; squeezed, antibunched, and sub-Poissonian states; operational definitions of the phase of the field; phase measurements / 42.50.Ar – Photon statistics and coherence theory / 42.65.Re – Ultrafast processes; optical pulse generation and pulse compression
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2001
