Continuous photodetection model: quantum jump engineering and hints for experimental verification

Abstract

We examine some aspects of the continuous photodetection model for photocounting processes in cavities. First, we work out a microscopic model that describes the field-detector interaction and deduce a general expression for the Quantum Jump Superoperator (QJS), that shapes the detector's post-action on the field upon a detection. We show that in particular cases our model recovers the QJSs previously proposed ad hoc in the literature and point out that by adjusting the detector parameters one can engineer QJSs. Then we set up schemes for experimental verification of the model. By taking into account the ubiquitous non-idealities, we show that by measuring the lower photocounts moments and the mean waiting time one can check which QJS better describes the photocounting phenomenon.