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Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1244 - 1247 (1993)

Measurement of the Wigner distribution and the density matrix of a light mode using optical homodyne tomography: Application to squeezed states and the vacuum

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D. T. Smithey, M. Beck, and M. G. Raymer
Department of Physics and Chemical Physics Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403

A. Faridani
Department of Mathematics, Oregon State University,Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Received 16 November 1992

We have measured probability distributions of quadrature-field amplitude for both vacuum and quadrature-squeezed states of a mode of the electromagnetic field. From these measurements we demonstrate the technique of optical homodyne tomography to determine the Wigner distribution and the density matrix of the mode. This provides a complete quantum mechanical characterization of the measured mode.


©1993 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.1244
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.1244
PACS: 42.50.Dv, 42.65.Ky

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