The project addresses the measurement of quantum-statistical properties of light on the femtosecond time scale. New measurement techniques will be developed which will target the extraction of the state function from a series of determinations of the probability density function relative to the phase of a reference, local-oscillator field. The work is, first of all, important to the fundamental interpretation of measurement in quantum mechanics. Secondly, the outcome in terms of techniques for measurement of photon statistics and phase noise of weak light will have a broad practical impact in the interpretation of results from other quantum-optical measurements such as atom interferometry and quantum computing.
