dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaMeasurement of the transverse spatial quantum state of light at the single-photon level
| Authors | Brian J. Smith, Bryan Killett, M. G. Raymer, I. A. Walmsley, K. Banaszek |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0507142 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507142 |
| DOI | 10.1364/OL.30.003365 |
Abstract
We present an experimental method to measure the transverse spatial quantum state of an optical field in coordinate space at the single-photon level. The continuous-variable measurements are made with a photon-counting, parity-inverting Sagnac interferometer based on all-reflecting optics. The technique provides a large numerical aperture without distorting the shape of the wave front, does not introduce astigmatism, and allows for characterization of fully or partially coherent optical fields at the single-photon level. Measurements of the transverse spatial Wigner functions for highly attenuated coherent beams are presented and compared to theoretical predictions.
{
"annotation_id": "2eb96d90-b26a-4331-85a6-892b3fda0673",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:20.541000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:20.541000Z",
"file_hash": "4c756cdb2c0a03524e5722d3586bc90aab8c878b3f10652354f6a177a562ff78",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We present an experimental method to measure the transverse spatial quantum\nstate of an optical field in coordinate space at the single-photon level. The\ncontinuous-variable measurements are made with a photon-counting,\nparity-inverting Sagnac interferometer based on all-reflecting optics. The\ntechnique provides a large numerical aperture without distorting the shape of\nthe wave front, does not introduce astigmatism, and allows for characterization\nof fully or partially coherent optical fields at the single-photon level.\nMeasurements of the transverse spatial Wigner functions for highly attenuated\ncoherent beams are presented and compared to theoretical predictions.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0507142",
"authors": [
"Brian J. Smith",
"Bryan Killett",
"M. G. Raymer",
"I. A. Walmsley",
"K. Banaszek"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1364/OL.30.003365",
"title": "Measurement of the transverse spatial quantum state of light at the single-photon level",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507142"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "1c8b5a2f-5e3b-4281-bb6e-0daf04046c61",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}