Nonclassical depth of a quantum state

Abstract

A measure is defined for how nonclassical a quantum state is, with values ranging from 0 to 1. When it is applied to the photon-number states, the calculated value is 1, the maximum possible. For squeezed states, it is a monotonically increasing function of the squeeze parameter with values varying from 0 to 1/2. The physical meaning of the nonclassical depth is found to be just the number of thermal photons necessary to ruin the nonclassical nature of the quantum state.