Wigner function of pulsed fields by direct detection

Opt Lett. 2009 May 1;34(9):1444-6. doi: 10.1364/ol.34.001444.

Abstract

We present the reconstruction of the Wigner function of some classical pulsed optical states obtained by direct measurement of the detected-photon probability distributions of the state displaced by a coherent field. We use a photodetector endowed with internal gain, which is operated in the non-photon-resolving regime. The measurements are performed up to mesoscopic intensities (up to more than 30 photons per pulse). The method can be applied to characterize nonclassical continuous-variable states.