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Four-photon subtraction from picosecond squeezed vacuum demonstrating Wigner negativity without loss correction

Mamoru Endo1,2,*, Takefumi Nomura1, Tatsuki Sonoyama1, Kazuma Takahashi1, Sachiko Takasu3, Daiji Fukuda3,4, Takahiro Kashiwazaki5, Asuka Inoue5, Takeshi Umeki5 et al.

Rajveer Nehra1,6,7,8, Petr Marek9, Radim Filip9, Kan Takase1,2, Warit Asavanant1,2, and Akira Furusawa2,1,†

  • *Contact author: endo@ap.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
  • †Contact author: akiraf@ap.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 022618 – Published 24 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6tlg-7qgm

Abstract

Multiphoton subtraction from a traveling squeezed vacuum is a standard route to non-Gaussian optical-state engineering. High state-generation rates call for ultrashort optical pulses driven by high-repetition-rate lasers, but combining higher-order subtraction with ultrashort pulsed light and full state reconstruction remains challenging. Here we demonstrate up to four-photon subtraction from 10-ps squeezed-vacuum wave packets generated by a broadband waveguide optical parametric amplifier. Using a Ti-Au transition-edge sensor for photon-number-resolved heralding and homodyne tomography on the signal mode, we reconstruct the generated states up to the four-photon-subtracted case. The reconstructed states exhibit clear parity-dependent structure and visible Wigner-function negativity without loss correction. These results extend the experimentally accessible regime of multiphoton subtraction in broadband traveling optical modes and establish a platform for non-Gaussian optical resource-state engineering in continuous-variable quantum optics.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 022618– Published 24 August, 2026
  • Received 19 December 2025
  • Revised 8 July 2026
  • Accepted 13 July 2026
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