Quantum Process Nonclassicality

Abstract

We propose a definition of nonclassicality for a single-mode quantum-optical process based on its action on coherent states. If a quantum process transforms a coherent state to a nonclassical state, it is verified to be nonclassical. To identify nonclassical processes, we introduce a representation for quantum processes, called the process-nonclassicality quasiprobability distribution, whose negativities indicate nonclassicality of the process. Using this distribution, we derive a relation for predicting nonclassicality of the output states for a given input state. We experimentally demonstrate our method by considering the single-photon addition as a nonclassical process, and predicting nonclassicality of the output state for an input thermal state.

5+2 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum Process Tomography: Resource Analysis of Different Strategies
• Single-photon excitation of a coherent state: catching the elementary step of stimulated light emission
• Complete Characterization of Quantum-Optical Processes
• Quantum process tomography with coherent states
• Nonclassical characteristic functions for highly sensitive measurements