We propose an alternative method for detecting the density matrix of a radiation field via optical homodyne tomography. The method needs no assumption on the state, and the density matrix is recovered directly from averages on data. The tomographic reconstruction is very fast and provides very reliable statistics on line with detection. As a test of the method we present numericla results for a set of computer-simulated experiments, corresponding to different quantum states of the radiation source. Then a tomographic reconstruction is given for experimental data provided by Smithey etal. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1244 (1993)].

• Received 9 March 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.50.4298