Multiphoton heralding generates large-amplitude squeezed Schrödinger cat states and parity-selective Fock superpositions from squeezed vacuum via an optical parametric amplifier
Phys. Rev. A 114, 043703 – Published 2 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lnzc-6bgh
Abstract
We propose a multiphoton heralding scheme using an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) that can generate two families of non-Gaussian states from a squeezed vacuum into: large-amplitude squeezed Schrödinger cat states and low-order parity-selective Fock superpositions. By injecting photons into the idler port and detecting photons at the output, an effective high-order photon subtraction () can be realized in a single OPA device for properly chosen () pairs, with an effective order . The heralded states exhibit strong Wigner negativity and high phase-space complexity. Remarkably, under photon loss, the complexity remains substantial, even after the negativity vanishes, indicating a loss-resilient quantum resource. These states exhibit phase-estimation performance that can achieve Heisenberg limit scaling with an enhanced constant factor in certain regimes. Our protocol establishes the OPA as a versatile platform for generating non-Gaussian states with promising applications in loss-resilient quantum metrology and fault-tolerant quantum information processing.