Abstract
A “which path” experiment is used as an illustrative example to show that homodyne detectors may be used in place of single-photon counting detectors in certain applications. In the case of interest, a single photon strikes a beam-splitter and the output beams are directed to a pair of homodyne detectors. Using Bayesian inference, the difference counts from the two detectors can be used to determine which path was taken by the photon. An error rate and effective efficiency are defined for the system, permitting direct comparison to conventional detection schemes. The calculations presented provide a framework for the analysis of homodyne detection in other photon counting applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 795-805 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journal of Modern Optics |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 1996 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The authors wish to thank M. G. Raymer and M. Beck for many valuable discussions. This work was performed at the Center for Optoelectronics and Imaging at the University of Rochester and funded in part by NSF Grant No. PHY-7057759. W.P.G. acknowledges the support of a graduate fellowship from the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.