We present a method for measuring quantum states encoded in the temporal modes of photons. The basis for the multilevel quantum states is defined by the use of modes propagating in a dispersive medium, which is a fiber in this case. The propagation and time-resolved single-photon detection allow us to define a positive-operator valued measure (POVM). The POVM depends on the amount of dispersion and the characteristics of a detector. This framework is numerically tested by performing quantum state tomography on a large number of states for a set of realistic experimental settings. Finally, the average fidelity between the expected and reconstructed states is computed for qubits, qutrits, and entangled qubits.

• Received 15 August 2020
• Accepted 9 November 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.052420