Quantum state preparation and conditional coherence |
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Authors: | Resch K J Lundeen J S Steinberg A M |
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Institution: | Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A7, Canada. |
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Abstract: | It is well known that spontaneous parametric down-conversion can be used to probabilistically prepare single-photon states. We have performed an experiment in which arbitrary superpositions of zero- and one-photon states can be prepared by appropriate postselection. The optical phase, which is meaningful only for superpositions of photon number, is related to the relative phase between the zero- and one-photon states. Whereas the light from spontaneous parametric down-conversion has an undefined phase, we show that this technique collapses one beam to a state of well-defined optical phase when a measurement succeeds on the other beam. |
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