Nonclassical light

Christopher Gerry; Peter Knight

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511791239.007

7 - Nonclassical light

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012

Christopher Gerry and

Peter Knight

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Christopher Gerry: Affiliation:
Lehman College, City University of New York
Peter Knight: Affiliation:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London

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“The word ‘classical’ means only one thing in science: it's wrong!”

We have previously emphasized the fact that all states of light are quantum mechanical and are thus nonclassical, deriving some quantum features from the discreteness of the photons. Of course, in practice, the nonclassical features of light are difficult to observe. (We shall use “quantum mechanical” and “nonclassical” more or less interchangeably here.) Already we have discussed what must certainly be the most nonclassical of all nonclassical states of light – the single-photon state. Yet, as we shall see, it is possible to have nonclassical states involving a very large number of photons. But we need a criterion for nonclassicality. Recall that in Chapter 5 we discussed such a criterion in terms of the quasi-probability distribution known as the P function, P(α). States for which P(α) is positive everywhere or no more singular than a delta function, are classical whereas those for which P(α) is negative or more singular than a delta function are nonclassical. We have shown, in fact, that P(α) for a coherent state is a delta function, and Hillery has shown that all other pure states of the field will have functions P(α) that are negative in some regions of phase space and are more singular than a delta. It is evident that the variety of possible nonclassical states of the field is quite large.

Type: Chapter
Information: Introductory Quantum Optics , pp. 150 - 194

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791239.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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