Optical von Neumann measurement

Abstract

We present an optical scheme that realizes the standard von Neumann measurement model, providing an indirect measurement of a quadrature of the field with controllable Gaussian state-reduction. The scheme is made of simple optical elements, as laser sources, beam splitters, and phase sensitive amplifiers, along with a feedback mechanism that uses a Pockels cell. We show that the von Neumann measurement is achieved without the need of working in a ultra-short pulsed regime.