Probing single-photon state tomography using phase-randomized coherent states
Paulo Valente, A. Lezama · Journal of the Optical Society of America B · 2017
Quantum processes involving single-photon states are of broad interest, in particular, for quantum communications. Extending to continuous values a recent proposal by Yuan et al. [Phys. Rev. A94, 062305 (2016)PLRAAN1050-294710.1103/PhysRevA.94.062305], we show that single-photon quantum processes can be characterized using phase-randomized coherent states (PRCS) as inputs. As a proof of principle, we present the experimental investigation of single-photon tomography using PRCS. The probability distribution of field quadrature measurements for single-photon states can be accurately derived from the PRCS data. As a consequence, the Wigner function and the density matrix of single-photon states are reconstructed with good precision. The sensitivity of the reconstruction to experimental errors and the number of PRCS used is addressed.