Non-Gaussian state generation with time-gated photon detection

Abstract

Non-Gaussian states of light, which are essential in fault-tolerant and universal optical quantum computation, are typically generated by a heralding scheme using photon detectors. Recently, it is theoretically shown that the large timing jitter of the photon detectors deteriorates the purity of the generated non-Gaussian states [T. Sonoyama, $\textit{et al}$., Phys. Rev. A $\textbf{105}$, 043714 (2022)]. In this study, we generate non-Gaussian states with Wigner negativity by time-gated photon detection. We use a fast optical switch for time gating to effectively improve the timing jitter of a photon-number-resolving detector based on transition edge sensor from 50 ns to 10 ns. As a result, we generate non-Gaussian states with Wigner negativity of $-0.011\pm 0.004$, which cannot be observed without the time-gated photon detection method. These results confirm the effect of the timing jitter on non-Gaussian state generation experimentally for the first time and provide the promising method of high-purity non-Gaussian state generation.