Heralded noiseless amplification and attenuation of non-Gaussian states of light
Christos N. Gagatsos, Jaromı́r Fiurášek, Alessandro Zavatta, Marco Bellini, Nicolas J. Cerf · Physical Review A · 2014
We examine the behavior of non-Gaussian states of light under the action of probabilistic noiseless amplification and attenuation. Surprisingly, we find that the mean-field amplitude may decrease in the process of noiseless amplification---or may increase in the process of noiseless attenuation, a counterintuitive effect that Gaussian states cannot exhibit. This striking phenomenon could be tested with experimentally accessible non-Gaussian states, such as single-photon added coherent states. We propose an experimental scheme, which is robust with respect to the major experimental imperfections, such as inefficient single-photon detection and imperfect photon addition. In particular, we argue that the observation of mean-field amplification by noiseless attenuation should be feasible with current technology.