Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Nonlinear amplification models for single photon detection

Presenting Author: Saumya Biswas, University of Oregon
Contributing Author(s): Steven J van Enk

A quantum mechanical model describing the transduction and amplification of a single photon signal consisting of a sequence of operators must respect the commutation relationships of operators and causality. The amplification stage facilitates a projective measurement of the detector. We elucidate the operator evolutions in the Heisenberg picture that help us quantify the noise margins and fundamental limits of signal to noise ratios in specific models of amplification. Non-linear amplification mechanisms do not necessarily amplify thermal fluctuations in detector's internal degrees of freedom by the same factor as the amplification of the signal. Practical amplifiers in use do not show any substantial amplification of thermal noise. We explore a few example systems which demonstrate the nonlinear amplification of signals. We form the Positive Operator Valued Measurement(POVM) elements that represent the probability of a photon detection. Specifically, we present results on the Non-linear Kerr models and driven Jaynes-Cummings model.

(Session 5 : Saturday from 5:00pm - 7:00pm)