Generation of optical coherent-state superpositions by number-resolved photon subtraction from the squeezed vacuum
Thomas Gerrits, Scott Glancy, Tracy Sharp Clement, Brice Calkins, Adriana E. Lita, Aaron Miller, Alan L. Migdall, Sae Woo Nam, Richard P. Mirin, Emanuel H. Knill · Physical Review A · 2010
We have created heralded coherent-state superpositions (CSSs) by subtracting up to three photons from a pulse of squeezed vacuum light. To produce such CSSs at a sufficient rate, we used our high-efficiency photon-number-resolving transition edge sensor to detect the subtracted photons. This experiment is enabled by and utilizes the full photon-number-resolving capabilities of this detector. The CSS produced by three-photon subtraction had a mean-photon number of $2.{75}_{\ensuremath{-}0.24}^{+0.06}$ and a fidelity of $0.{59}_{\ensuremath{-}0.14}^{+0.04}$ with an ideal CSS. This confirms that subtracting more photons results in higher-amplitude CSSs.