PHASE MEASUREMENT AND Q-FUNCTION

Generalizing a recent theoretical result obtained by Freyberger and Schleich [Phys. Rev. A 47, R30 (1993)], we show that the phase-measurement scheme proposed and realized by Noh, Fougeres, and Mandel [Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 1426 (199 1); Phys. Rev. A 45, 424 (1992)] amounts to measuring the Q function for the light under investigation, provided the reference beam (used for homodyne detection) is a very strong coherent field so that it can be described classically. The desired phase distribution follows from the Q function by averaging over the field amplitude. Since an analysis of an earlier proposal by Bandilla and Paul [Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 23, 323 (1969)] to measure phase distributions via amplification led to just the same result, a perfect physical equivalence of those two approaches has thus been established.