Methods for Producing Optical Coherent State Superpositions

Abstract

We discuss several methods to produce superpositions of optical coherent states (also known as "cat states"). Cat states have remarkable properties that could allow them to be powerful tools for quantum information processing and metrology. A number of proposals for how one can produce cat states have appeared in the literature in recent years. We describe these proposals and present new simulation and analysis of them incorporating practical issues such as photon loss, detector inefficiency, and limited strength of nonlinear interactions. We also examine how each would perform in a realistic experiment.

25 pages, 27 figures, revtex. Version 2 includes expanded discussion of some earlier methods and more references. Version 3 includes even more references and a more conclusive conclusion. Version 3 is the published version

References in corpus (8)

• Generation of a superposition of odd photon number states for quantum information networks
• Observation of squeezed light with 10dB quantum noise reduction
• Observation of -9 dB quadrature squeezing with improvement of phase stability in homodyne measurement
• Direct observation of non-classical photon statistics in parametric downconversion
• Spectral structure and decompositions of optical states, and their applications
• Decomposing a pulsed optical parametric amplifier into independent squeezers
• Lower bounds for the fidelity of entangled state preparation
• Practical effects in cat state breeding

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Scheme for generating coherent state superpositions with realistic cross-Kerr nonlinearity
• Coherent states engineering with linear optics: Possible and impossible tasks
• Quantum properties of a superposition of squeezed displaced two-mode vacuum and single-photon states
• On the quantum polarization and entanglement of superposition of two two-mode coherent states
• Statistical properties and decoherence of two-mode photon-subtracted squeezed vacuum