Abstract

Coherent state superpositions, also known as Schrödinger cat states, are widely recognized as promising resources in quantum information, quantum metrology, as well as fundamental tests [1]. In the pseudo-orthogonal basis {|γ〉} of coherent states, these superpositions are given by |κ_±(γ)〉 = N_±(|γ〉 ± |−γ〉) where N_± is the normalization factor and the sign (±) of the superposition refers to the even and odd cat, respectively. These states are hard to produce deterministically and most schemes for their probabilistic generation can only attain amplitudes too small for practical use. This is for example the case for photon-subtracted squeezed vacuum (PSSV) [2], which can be used to approximate cat states of amplitude no larger than γ = 1.5 if the fidelity is to be maintained above 95%. One way to reach larger amplitudes is to start with pairs of small cats and then to interfere them on a balanced beam splitter (Fig. 1a). The projective measurement of one of the outputs is used to herald a larger cat resulting from the constructive interference of the initial states [3-4]. The scheme we propose uses the projection |x = 0〉〈x = 0| as the heralding condition. We propose homodyning, as opposed to photon counting, because homodyne detection has high a quantum efficiency, and—as we demonstrate—can be tuned to increase the success probability of the amplification without heavily compromising the output’s fidelity.

© 2013 IEEE