Ultrasensitive pulsed, balanced homodyne detector: application to time-domain quantum measurements

A pulsed, balanced homodyne detector has been developed for precise measure ment of the electric field quadratures of pulsed optical quantum states. A high level of common mode suppression (> 85 dB) and low electronic noise (7 30 electrons per pulse) provide a signal-to-noise ratio of 14 dB for measur ement of the quantum noise of individual pulses. Measurements at repetition rates as high as 1 MHz are possible. As a test, quantum tomography of the coherent state was performed, and the Wigner function and the density matri x were reconstructed with 99.5% fidelity. The detection system can be used for ultrarsensitive balanced detection in cw mode, e.g., for weak absorptio n measurements. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.