Finite-dimensional quantum states generated by conditional measurements on beam splitters

Abstract

In this work, the basic idea of the quantum scissors (QS) device is slightly modified to generate finite-dimensional quantum states by means of conditional measurements on beam splitters (BSs). It turns out that a QS device with two single-photon inputs and two single-photon detections is just a projection operator composed of the vacuum state, one-photon state, and two-photon state, depending upon the transmission coefficients of BSs. As the most general example, we consider the squeezed coherent state as the input state and derive the analytical expression of the output state. Its nonclassical characteristics are analyzed in detail by means of the average photon number, intensity gain, and Wigner function. In addition, we extend this technique to the two-mode squeezed vacuum state (TMSVS). The resulting state is just the generalized Bell state, containing only the twin vacuum, twin one-photon, and twin two-photon components, whose entanglement properties are quantified by the von Neumann entropy and Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen correlation. The results show that the entanglement of the truncated TMSVS is stronger than that of TMSVS within a certain range of squeezing parameter and transmissivity.