title: Direct, loss-tolerant characterization of nonclassical photon statistics.
abstract: We experimentally investigate a method of directly characterizing the photon-number distribution of nonclassical light beams that is tolerant to losses and makes use of only standard binary detectors. This is achieved in a single measurement by calibrating the detector using some small amount of prior information about the source. We demonstrate the technique on a freely propagating heralded two-photon-number state created by conditional detection of a two-mode squeezed state generated by parametric down-conversion.
authors.affiliation: Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, United Kingdom. daryl.achilles@physis.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Daryl
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Achilles
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Silberhorn
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Walmsley