LAUSR

Abstract We theoretically investigate the generation of a novel non-Gaussian entangled state by using two single-photon catalytic quantum scissors (CQS) on an input two-mode squeezed vacuum state, and derive the effective operator of the CQS which is closely associated with the transmittance of beam splitters. The output state of this setup composes of the zero-, single- and two-photon entangled states. The results show that both larger success probability of achieving such event and higher fidelity between the input and output states can be attained by taking appropriate parameters of the transmittance and the initial squeezing parameters. Moreover, the entanglement properties of the generated non-Gaussian entangled state are discussed in terms of the degree of entanglement, the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) correlation and the two-mode squeezing effect. Our simulation results indicate that, in the small initial squeezing levels, there are always two improved areas of entanglement at the low and high transmittance ranges, respectively. Comparing to the improved areas of the entanglement, we find that both EPR correlation and two-mode squeezing effect rather than the entanglement degree are more rigorous in the measurement of the improved entanglement. These results show that the CQS operation is able to efficiently enhance the entanglement, which may be useful for the continuous-variable quantum communication.