Quantum state engineering by a coherent superposition of photon subtraction and addition

We study a coherent superposition t (a) over cap + r (a) over cap dagger of field annihilation and creation operators acting on continuous variable systems and propose its application for quantum state engineering. Specifically, it is investigated how the superposed operation transforms a classical state to a nonclassical one, together with emerging nonclassical effects. We also propose an experimental scheme to implement this elementary coherent operation and discuss its usefulness to produce an arbitrary superposition of number states involving up to two photons.