Measuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space
Phase space quasi-probability distributions of certain quantum states reveal structure on a scale that is small compared to the Planck area. Using an analog between the wavefunction of a single photon and the electric field of a classical ultrashort optical pulse we show that spectral shearing inter...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2010
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| _version_ | 1797086700014403584 |
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| author | Austin, DR Witting, T Wyatt, A Walmsey, I |
| author_facet | Austin, DR Witting, T Wyatt, A Walmsey, I |
| author_sort | Austin, DR |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Phase space quasi-probability distributions of certain quantum states reveal structure on a scale that is small compared to the Planck area. Using an analog between the wavefunction of a single photon and the electric field of a classical ultrashort optical pulse we show that spectral shearing interferometry enables measurement of such structure directly, thereby extending an idea of Krzysztof Wódkiewicz and others. In particular, we use multiple-shear spectral interferometry to fully characterize a pulse consisting of two sub-pulses which are temporally and spectrally disjoint, without a relative-phase ambiguity. This enables us to compute the Wigner distribution of the pulse. This spectrographic representation of the pulse field features fringes that are tilted with respect to both the time- and frequency axes, showing that in general the shortest sub-Planck distances may not be in the directions of the canonical (and easily experimentally accessible) directions. Further, independent of this orientation, evidence of the sub-Planck scale of the structure may be extracted directly from the measured signal. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T02:25:41Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:a57e9380-0bf9-441e-83de-32e47b1e21c3 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T02:25:41Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:a57e9380-0bf9-441e-83de-32e47b1e21c32022-03-27T02:40:57ZMeasuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase spaceJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a57e9380-0bf9-441e-83de-32e47b1e21c3EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2010Austin, DRWitting, TWyatt, AWalmsey, IPhase space quasi-probability distributions of certain quantum states reveal structure on a scale that is small compared to the Planck area. Using an analog between the wavefunction of a single photon and the electric field of a classical ultrashort optical pulse we show that spectral shearing interferometry enables measurement of such structure directly, thereby extending an idea of Krzysztof Wódkiewicz and others. In particular, we use multiple-shear spectral interferometry to fully characterize a pulse consisting of two sub-pulses which are temporally and spectrally disjoint, without a relative-phase ambiguity. This enables us to compute the Wigner distribution of the pulse. This spectrographic representation of the pulse field features fringes that are tilted with respect to both the time- and frequency axes, showing that in general the shortest sub-Planck distances may not be in the directions of the canonical (and easily experimentally accessible) directions. Further, independent of this orientation, evidence of the sub-Planck scale of the structure may be extracted directly from the measured signal. |
| spellingShingle | Austin, DR Witting, T Wyatt, A Walmsey, I Measuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space |
| title | Measuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space |
| title_full | Measuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space |
| title_fullStr | Measuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space |
| title_short | Measuring sub-Planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space |
| title_sort | measuring sub planck structural analogues in chronocyclic phase space |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT austindr measuringsubplanckstructuralanaloguesinchronocyclicphasespace AT wittingt measuringsubplanckstructuralanaloguesinchronocyclicphasespace AT wyatta measuringsubplanckstructuralanaloguesinchronocyclicphasespace AT walmseyi measuringsubplanckstructuralanaloguesinchronocyclicphasespace |