Continuous-variable optical quantum-state tomography

Abstract

This review covers the latest developments in continuous-variable quantum-state tomography of optical fields and photons, placing a special emphasis on its practical aspects and applications in quantum-information technology. Optical homodyne tomography is reviewed as a method of reconstructing the state of light in a given optical mode. A range of relevant practical topics is discussed, such as state-reconstruction algorithms (with emphasis on the maximum-likelihood technique), the technology of time-domain homodyne detection, mode-matching issues, and engineering of complex quantum states of light. The paper also surveys quantum-state tomography for the transverse spatial state (spatial mode) of the field in the special case of fields containing precisely one photon.