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Single-photon excitation of a coherent state: catching the elementary step of stimulated light emission

Alessandro Zavatta·Silvia Viciani·Marco Bellini
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Abstract

When a single quantum of electromagnetic field excitation is added to the same spatio-temporal mode of a coherent state, a new field state is generated that exhibits intermediate properties between those of the two parents. Such a single-photon-added coherent state is obtained by the action of the photon creation operator on a coherent state and can thus be regarded as the result of the most elementary excitation process of a classical light field. Here we present and describe in depth the experimental realization of such states and their complete analysis by means of a novel ultrafast, time-domain, quantum homodyne tomography technique clearly revealing their non-classical character.

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Alessandro Zavatta, Silvia Viciani, Marco Bellini. 2005-08-12. Single-photon excitation of a coherent state: catching the elementary step of stimulated light emission. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.72.023820

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