Reliable source of conditional non-Gaussian states from single-mode thermal fields

We address both theoretically and experimentally the generation of pulsed non-Gaussian states from classical Gaussian ones by means of conditional measurements. The setup relies on a beam splitter and a pair of linear photodetectors able to resolve up to tens of photons in the two outputs. We show the reliability of the setup and the good agreement with the theory for a single-mode thermal field entering the beam splitter and present a thorough characterization of the photon statistics of the conditional states.
Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures