Generating Schrödinger-cat-like states by means of conditional measurements on a beam splitter
Mohammed Dakna(Friedrich Schiller University Jena), Tiemo Anhut(Friedrich Schiller University Jena), Tomáš Opatrný(Friedrich Schiller University Jena), L. Knöll(Friedrich Schiller University Jena), D.‐G. Welsch(Friedrich Schiller University Jena)
Cited by 433Open Access
Abstract
A scheme for generating Schr\"odinger-cat-like states of a single-mode optical field by means of conditional measurement is proposed. Feeding a squeezed vacuum into a beam splitter and counting the photons in one of the output channels, the conditional states in the other output channel exhibit a number of properties that are very similar to those of superpositions of two coherent states with opposite phases. We present analytical and numerical results for the photon-number and quadrature-component distributions of the conditional states and their Wigner and Husimi functions. Further, we discuss the effect of realistic photocounting on the states.