Abstract
The authors show that efficient detection of quantum squeezing in a field quadrature of an optical mode is possible using homodyne detection of just one-bit resolution, as is available on optical satellites already in orbit.
Highlights
The laws of quantum mechanics have been validated by numerous fundamental tests [1]
We show that despite the extreme constraint, binary homodyne detection (BHD) can detect quadrature squeezing efficiently even under unfavorable conditions like high loss when relying on ensemble measurements
A separate analysis shows that this ratio is independent of the squeezing parameter r. We stress that this value, as it applies to the extreme discretization into binary outcomes, is an upper bound for the required sample overhead of arbitrarily discretized homodyne detection such as occurring in realistic analog-to-digital (AD) converters
Summary
The laws of quantum mechanics have been validated by numerous fundamental tests [1]. With the advent of optical satellite links [2,3,4,5,6] it is possible to validate quantum mechanics over vast distances and varying gravitational potentials. In optical quantum information processing [19,20,21,22,23] this is exemplified by quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols [24] and by tests of Bell’s inequalities [25,26,27,28,29], which inherently require one to discretize the homodyne outcomes to binary values. We consider the extreme case of a binary homodyne detector that distinguishes between positive and negative quadrature values, and we analyze its performance for the detection of individual signals as well as for the consecutive detection of multiple copies of the same state. We show that despite the extreme constraint, binary homodyne detection (BHD) can detect quadrature squeezing efficiently even under unfavorable conditions like high loss when relying on ensemble measurements.
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