Number-Phase Uncertainty Relations for Optical Fields

Abstract

The Hermitian phase formalism of Pegg and Barnett allows for direct calculations of the phase variance and, consequently, the number-phase uncertainty product. This gives us a unique opportunity, inaccessible before, to study the number-phase uncertainty relations for optical fields in a direct way within a consistent quantum formalism. A few examples of fields generated in nonlinear optical processes are studied from the point of view of their number-phase uncertainty relations.