Thermal Coherent States and Thermal Squeezed States

Abstract

Various definitions of thermal coherent states and thermal squeezed states are compared and interrelated. Different ordering of squeezing, displacement and thermalizing operators is discussed in order to establish a relation between all definitions. A one-to-one correspondence is exhibited between general Gaussian density matrices in coordinate space and thermal squeezed states.     

Two-mode Squeezed Pair Coherent States

Abstract

The properties of states generated by the application of the two-mode squeeze operator to the pair coherent states are studied. These states are the two-mode analogues of the single-mode squeezed states generated by the application of the single-mode squeeze operator to an ordinary coherent state. In the present case there are correlations between the modes and strong non-classical properties are to be expected. We study the statistical properties of the photon number distributions, squeezing, violations of the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality, quasiprobability distributions and the phase distributions.     

Phase Resolution and Coherent Phase States

Abstract

Various measures of phase resolution (including variance, entropy, confidence half-width, and reciprocal peak likelihood) are reviewed, and applied to the class of coherent phase states. These states arise naturally as eigenstates of the Susskind-Glogower phase operator, and are found to have near-optimal phase resolution properties for fixed mean photon number [nbar]. The mutual information for a communication channel based on coherent phase states is calculated as log ([nbar] + 1), within 1·5 bits of the theoretical maximum for single-mode channels.     

Entangled Coherent States with Variable Weighting

Abstract

Entangled coherent states, with arbitrary weighting of the two product coherent states in the superposition, might be produced by incorporating an optical bistable device in a coupled cavity configuration. This scheme is contrasted with the entangled coherent states that arise due to interaction in an optical Kerr medium and produce only equally weighted entanglements. The entanglement is shown to occur, not between coherent states, but between states which closely approximate coherent states. An interaction which does produce entanglement between true coherent states is introduced but is shown to be unphysical.     

Multimode Coherent States and HeNe Laser Light

Abstract

Among the quantum optical states of a tremolant optical cavity are multimode coherent states. Such states are also possible in open cavities where the cavity stabilization time is greater than the multimode beat time. In open cavity resonator lasers they reduce the power limiting effects of spectral hole burning and therefore tend to grow at the expense of single mode coherent states.     

Strong Nonequilibrium Coherent States in Mesoscopic Superconductor-Semiconductor-Superconductor Junctions

A biased superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junction is known to be a strong nonequilibrium system, where Andreev scattering at the interfaces creates a quasiparticle distribution function far from equilibrium. A manifestation of this is the well-known subgap structure in the I/V characteristic, with peaks in the conductance at V = 2/ne. We study an SNS structure consisting of highly doped diffusive GaAs with superconducting electrodes of aluminum with one electrode configured as a flux-sensitive interferometer. This enables us to probe the coherent nature of the quasiparticle states at subgap bias voltage. Oscillations in the conductance as a function of flux are seen at zero bias voltage and disappear below experimental resolution as the bias voltage exceeds the Thouless energy E _t = D/L ², where L is the junction length. The oscillations reappear at higher bias in a region around the superconducting energy gap V = /e corresponding to the subgap conductance peak n = 2.     

Non-classical Properties of Even and Odd Coherent States

Abstract

We present a detailed discussion of even and odd coherent states defined as eigenstates of the single mode two-photon annihilation operator a ². We study the non-classical properties such as squeezing, higher-order squeezing, and photon antibunching. Also discussed are the various quantum quasiprobability distributions, namely the P function, which is shown to be highly singular, the Q function, and the Wigner, which can take on negative values for these states. Finally, we present a discussion of a possible mechanism for the generation of such states based on the competition between parametric amplification and the incoherent losses from two-photon resonant absorption.     

Wigner Functions for Coherent and Squeezed States with Thermal Noise

Abstract

A generalized Wigner function W _T(α, ) including the thermal degrees of freedom is presented to calculate the ‘reduced’ Wigner functions for all kinds of coherent and squeezed states with thermal noise by the formalism of thermofield dynamics. The results show that the different definitions of coherent and squeezed state with the same corresponding density matrix give rise to the same reduced Wigner function. By our method, the reduced Wigner function can be calculated for an arbitrary vector in the thermal Fock space, of which the density matrix is too complicated to use.     

Interaction of Superpositions of Coherent States of Light with Two-level Atoms

Abstract

We investigate some of the basic features of the interaction of superpositions of coherent states of light with two-level atoms in the framework of the Jaynes-Cummings model. We compare the behaviour of the system in the case of having a coherent superposition state and a statistical mixture of coherent states as an initial field. We investigate the collapses and revivals of the atomic inversion by studying the evolution of the Q function of the cavity field. We also establish the connection between the purity of the field and the collapses and revivals of the atomic inversion.     

Non-classical Properties of Two-mode SU(1, 1) Coherent States

Abstract

We examine the non-classical properties of two-mode coherent states based on different unitary irreducible representations of SU(1, 1). Such states are generated by the action of the two-mode squeezing operator on initial states of the field containing arbitrary numbers of photons in each of the two modes. If the initial state of the field is a two-mode vacuum state, the final state is of course the two-mode squeezed vacuum. An initial occupation generalizes the idea of a squeezed vacuum to the SU(1, 1) coherent states. We show that fields in such states have remarkable quantum properties such as sub-Poissonian statistics, violations of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, strong correlations in the photon number fluctuations and squeezing. Using information theory formalism, we show that these coherent states are less correlated than the usual two-mode squeezed vacuum. Moreover, we show that an initial coherent amplitude contribution, in a large amplitude limit, can result in the reduction of correlations between modes.     

Evolution of Coherent States in a Dispersionless Fibre with Saturable Nonlinearity and the Generation of Macroscopic Quantum-superposition States

Abstract

We study the evolution of a initially coherent state of an electromagnetic field propagating in a Kerr medium with saturable nonlinearity. By using the quantum phase distribution formalism, we analyse the dependence of the output signal phase configuration upon input field amplitude. We observe that the saturation of the nonlinear contribution of the refractive index of the propagation medium introduces interference effects that compromise the observation of macroscopically well distinguishable components of the output state. For input amplitudes much larger than a characteristic saturation amplitude the final state differs from the input state only by an overall phase shift. Possible relevance of the present results in the experimental search of Schrödinger cat-like states using semiconductor-doped glass optical fibres is discussed.     

SU(1,1) Squeezing of SU(1,1) Generalized Coherent States

Abstract

In this paper we have introduced a new class of the SU(1,1) coherent states which are the eigenstates of the generalized annihilation operator K_. We have also studied the SU(1,1) squeezing of the SU(1,1) generalized coherent states interacting with a nonlinear medium modelled as an anharmonic oscillator.     

On the Interaction of Two-level Atoms with Superpositions of Coherent States of Light

Abstract

In this paper we study the decoherence process occurring when a field prepared in quantum superpositions of coherent states (Schrödinger cats) interacts with a two-level atom in the framework of the Jaynes-Cummings model. We emphasize the influence of the relative phase in the initial superposition state on the purity of the field during the evolution     

Stimulated Rayleigh Wing Scattering and Stimulated Four-photon Interaction in Liquid-core Waveguides

Abstract

In this Letter we show that the power of stimulated Rayleigh wing scattering (SRWS) generated in bulk liquid of anisotropic molecules is reduced by a simultaneous presence of stimulated four-photon interaction (SFPI) because the combined effect of SRWS and SFPI results in a walk-off between the pump beam and the generated signal in the nonguided system and this shortens the nonlinear interaction length. The SRWS may be greatly enhanced in a hollow waveguide filled with a liquid of higher index of refraction than that of the waveguide cladding as the long interaction length is maintained for the whole length of the waveguide. The enhanced SRWS results in a considerable red-shifted frequency super-broadening of an intense optical pulse that passes through the waveguide, and which can be experimentally observed.     

On the Squeezing of Coherent States by the Multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian with an Intensity-dependent Coupling

Abstract

The squeezing properties of the multiphoton Hamiltonian with intensity-dependent coupling are evaluated for the [xcirc] and [pcirc] _x quadratures, for the initial state of a coherent electromagnetic field and an atom in the ground state. Two measures of squeezing: the percentage of total squeezing and the squeezing time-period percentage, are introduced. Interesting squeezing properties with respect to [xcirc] are observed for real coherent states when the time evolution of the above measures and of the time-averaged squeezing are analysed. The multiphoton intensity-dependent coupling Hamiltonian is found to be almost independent of the specific powers of the annihilation and creation operators, as long as the sum of the powers is kept constant.     

Coherent States of a Harmonic Oscillator in a Finite-dimensional Hilbert Space and Their Squeezing Properties

Abstract

New coherent states of a harmonic oscillator in a finite-dimensional Fock space are introduced. Some properties of these coherent states are discussed. The second-order squeezing of these coherent states with respect to the quadrature operators is studied in detail. In particular, for a two-state system the arbitrary higher-order squeezing of these states is investigated. It is shown that these coherent states exhibit much richer squeezing properties than the coherent states of a usual harmonic oscillator in an infinite-dimensional Fock space. It is found that these coherent states have not only second-order squeezing but also higher-order squeezing with respect to the quadrature operators of the field under consideration.