Cat-like States Research Articles

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 Schrodinger cat-like states using semiconductor-doped glass optical fibres is discussed.

Role of quantum interference in producing non-classical states

Approximating a continuous superposition by a discrete one leads to an understanding of the role of quantum interference in generating squeezed coherent states, and in its quantum properties. It was shown that discrete superposition with a large enough number of coherent states with appropriate coefficients can have practically the same features as the squeezed coherent state. Dependent on the parameters W, r and 8, different numbers of coherent states are required for the interference fringe to form a Wigner function resembling that of the squeezed vacuum state and to reduce the deviation below a certain value. For the case of rotating the direction of squeezing, about 20 states were required to lower the deviation to 0.05%, while 640 states would be necessary when a unit displacement along the imaginary axis is included. When only a few coherent states are superimposed, the resulting state changes chaotically. In the case when the approximated squeezed coherent state was displaced along the imaginary axis an interesting Schrodinger cat-like state was found with about 20 coherent states on the real axis. At this point a significant peak occurs in the variances of the quadratures. It turned out that non-classical states can be effectively produced by a discrete superposition of coherent states with the coefficients derived from the one-dimensional representation of the given state.

The dynamic generation of Schrödinger cats and their detection

A coherent state interacting with a suitable nonlinearity can be transformed into a quantum superposition of two coherent states 180° out of phase with each other. The interference between the two macroscopic components of this Schrödinger's cat-like state can be detected with a homodyne detector.