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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Quantum State Engineering of Light with Continuous-wave Optical Parametric Oscillators
Published on: May 30, 2014
Demonstration of near-optimal discrimination of optical coherent states
Christoffer Wittmann1, Masahiro Takeoka, Katiúscia N Cassemiro
1Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik, Max-Planck-Forschungsgruppe, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Günther-Scharowsky-Strasse 1, 91058, Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract:
The optimal discrimination of nonorthogonal quantum states with minimum error probability is a fundamental task in quantum measurement theory as well as an important primitive in optical communication. In this work, we propose and experimentally realize a new and simple quantum measurement strategy capable of discriminating two coherent states with smaller error probabilities than can be obtained using the standard measurement devices: the Kennedy receiver and the homodyne receiver.

