Nonclassicality of a photon-subtracted Gaussian field

Abstract

Recently, a non-Gaussian field, which may be a useful basis for entanglement distillation and efficient quantum teleportation, has been experimentally produced by subtracting a photon from a squeezed Gaussian field. We investigate the nonclassicality of such the field using negativity in the Wigner function and the existence of positive well-defined $P$ function. We obtain the condition to see negativity in the Wigner function for the case including the mixed Gaussian incoming field, the threshold photodetection and the inefficient homodyne measurement. We show how similar the photon-subtracted state is to a superposition of coherent states.