Optical homodyne detection in view of the joint probability distribution
Toru Kawakubo, Katsuji Yamamoto · Physical Review A · 2010
Optical homodyne detection is examined in view of the joint probability distribution. The usual view is that the relative phase between independent laser fields is localized by photon-number measurements in interference experiments such as homodyne detection. This is why operationally coherent states for laser fields are used in the description of homodyne detection and optical quantum-state tomography. Here, we elucidate these situations by considering the joint probability distribution and the invariance of homodyne detection under the phase transformation of optical fields.