Sequential unsharp measurement of photon polarization

Abstract

We propose a general experimental scheme based on binary trees of partially polarizing beam splitters (PPBSs) for realizing sequential unsharp measurements of photon polarization. The sharpnesses and the bases of the particular photon polarization measurements can be chosen arbitrarily by using corresponding PPBSs and phase plates in the setup. In the limit of low sharpnesses the scheme can realize sequential weak measurements, too. We develop a general formalism for describing sequential unsharp measurements of photon polarization in which the particular unsharp measurements are characterized by appropriate measurement operators. We show that a straightforward experimental realization of this model is the proposed scheme. In this formalism the output polarization states after the sequential measurement and any correlation functions characterizing the measurement results can be easily calculated. Our model can be used for analyzing the consequences of applying postselection and reselection in the measurement. We derive the anomalous mean value for an unsharp polarization measurement with postselection and the anomalous second-order correlation function for the sequential unsharp measurement of photon polarization with reselection. We show that these anomalies can be easily measured using the proposed scheme.