• Advanced Photonics
  • Vol. 3, Issue 6, 066001 (2021)
Liang Xu1、2、3、4、5、†, Huichao Xu1、2、3、4、6, Jie Xie1、2、3、4, Hui Li1、2、3、4, Lin Zhou1、2、3、4, Feixiang Xu1、2、3、4, and Lijian Zhang1、2、3、4、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1Nanjing University, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing, China
  • 2Nanjing University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing, China
  • 3Nanjing University, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing, China
  • 4Nanjing University, Key Laboratory of Intelligent Optical Sensing and Manipulation, Nanjing, China
  • 5Research Center for Quantum Sensing, Zhejiang Laboratory, Hangzhou, China
  • 6Purple Mountain Laboratories, Nanjing, China
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    DOI: 10.1117/1.AP.3.6.066001 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Liang Xu, Huichao Xu, Jie Xie, Hui Li, Lin Zhou, Feixiang Xu, Lijian Zhang. Direct characterization of coherence of quantum detectors by sequential measurements[J]. Advanced Photonics, 2021, 3(6): 066001 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    The quantum properties of quantum measurements are indispensable resources in quantum information processing and have drawn extensive research interest. The conventional approach to revealing quantum properties relies on the reconstruction of entire measurement operators by quantum detector tomography. However, many specific properties can be determined by a part of the matrix components of the measurement operators, which makes it possible to simplify the characterization process. We propose a general framework to directly obtain individual matrix elements of the measurement operators by sequentially measuring two noncompatible observables. This method allows us to circumvent the complete tomography of the quantum measurement and extract the required information. We experimentally implement this scheme to monitor the coherent evolution of a general quantum measurement by determining the off-diagonal matrix elements. The investigation of the measurement precision indicates the good feasibility of our protocol for arbitrary quantum measurements. Our results pave the way for revealing the quantum properties of quantum measurements by selectively determining the matrix components of the measurement operators.
    Supplementary Materials
    Liang Xu, Huichao Xu, Jie Xie, Hui Li, Lin Zhou, Feixiang Xu, Lijian Zhang. Direct characterization of coherence of quantum detectors by sequential measurements[J]. Advanced Photonics, 2021, 3(6): 066001
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