Measurement of the photon statistics and the noise figure of a fiber-optic parametric amplifier

Abstract

We report measurement of the noise statistics of spontaneous parametric fluorescence in a fiber parametric amplifier with single-mode, single-photon resolution. We employ optical homodyne tomography for this purpose, which also provides a self-calibrating measurement of the noise figure of the amplifier. The measured photon statistics agree with quantum-mechanical predictions, and the amplifier's noise figure is found to be almost quantum limited.