Extending the quantum tomography of a quasi-photon-number-resolving detector

Abstract

The ability to discriminate the number of photons in a radiation field has a critical role in the implementation of quantum optical technologies. True photon-number-resolving detectors are rare and complex devices, while a quasi-photon-number-resolving detector (qPNRD) is a practical alternative for real-world applications. Our qPNRD is composed of a fiber demultiplexer and individual non-photon-number-resolving detectors. We perform quantum tomography on our qPNRD based on the positive operator-valued measure and extend the analysis using the Bayesian formalism to uncover how the measurement influences knowledge of the measured photon probability distribution.