Experimental realization of operator superpositions by single-photon interference
speaker: Alessandro Zavatta (Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata (INOA-CNR))abstract: The successful experimental implementation of the single-photon addition and subtraction operations has permitted for the first time the realization of alternated sequences of the creation and annihilation operators 1. The states resulting from the application of these sequences to a thermal state depend on the order in which the two operations are combined. Here a single-photon interferometer is used to create coherent superpositions of the two alternated sequences of operators. The sign of the superposition depends on the destructive or constructive character of the single-photon interference, thus the commutation relation can be directly proven or a novel nonclassical state can be produced 2. The resulting states are analyzed by mean of homodyne detection and the non-commutativity of the bosonic operators is directly verified. 1 V. Parigi, A. Zavatta, M. S. Kim and M. Bellini, Science 317, 1890 (2007). 2 M. S. Kim, H. Jeong, A. Zavatta, V. Parigi and M. Bellini, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 260401 (2008).
timetable:
Thu 5 Nov, 16:00 - 16:30, Aula Dini
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