Here we analyze ways to achieve deep subthreshold parametric squeezing or cooling of a single degree-of-freedom parametric resonator enhanced by a lock-in amplifier feedback loop. Due to the feedback, the dynamics of the parametric resonator becomes more complex and a Hopf bifurcation at the instability threshold can occur. Initially, we calculate the phase-dependent gain of parametric amplification with feedback of an added ac signal. In one approach, we obtain the amplification gain approximately using two independent approaches: the averaging method and the harmonic balance method. We also obtain this gain more exactly using Floquet theory and Green's functions methods. The Hopf bifurcation was predicted by the harmonic balance method and by Floquet theory, but not by the averaging method. In our analysis of fluctuations, we Fourier analyze the response of the parametric resonator with feedback to an added white noise. We were able to calculate, in addition to the noise spectral density, the squeezing of fluctuations in this resonator with feedback. Very strong squeezing or cooling can occur. Deamplification and cooling occur near the Hopf bifurcation, whereas squeezing occurs near a saddle-node bifurcation.
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26 pages, 9 figures. Added two co-authors. Changed title. Added one figure. Under review
Here we analyze ways to achieve deep subthreshold parametric squeezing or cooling of a single degree-of-freedom parametric resonator enhanced by a lock-in amplifier feedback loop. Due to the feedback, the dynamics of the parametric resonator becomes more complex and a Hopf bifurcation at the instability threshold can occur. Initially, we calculate the phase-dependent gain of parametric amplification with feedback of an added ac signal. In one approach, we obtain the amplification gain approximately using two independent approaches: the averaging method and the harmonic balance method. We also obtain this gain more exactly using Floquet theory and Green's functions methods. The Hopf bifurcation was predicted by the harmonic balance method and by Floquet theory, but not by the averaging method. In our analysis of fluctuations, we Fourier analyze the response of the parametric resonator with feedback to an added white noise. We were able to calculate, in addition to the noise spectral density, the squeezing of fluctuations in this resonator with feedback. Very strong squeezing or cooling can occur. Deamplification and cooling occur near the Hopf bifurcation, whereas squeezing occurs near a saddle-node bifurcation.
In quantum information processing, control of quantum entanglement is of central importance, particularly for applications in quantum computing. One established method for generating entanglement is squeezing, which exploits the uncertainty principle: fluctuations in one of a pair of conjugate variables are suppressed at the expense of enhanced fluctuations in the other. A representative approach for squeezing is the parametric amplifier. Depending on the parametric excitation amplitude, the system exhibits regimes of stability and instability of the trivial solution. Conventional studies of squeezing have focused on the stable regime, where the squeezing is maximized near the instability threshold. When the parametric excitation amplitude is increased further and the system enters the unstable regime, the system can reach a steady state due to cubic nonlinearity. However, the squeezing properties of this state have not been fully clarified. In this study, as a first step toward a quantum-mechanical treatment, we investigate squeezing in a classical parametric amplifier in the unstable regime. To enable analytical treatment, we approximate the white noise by a narrowband resonant cosine component and neglect stochasticity. The analysis shows that the steady-state amplitude depends on the phase difference between the noise and the parametric excitation, as in the stable regime, indicating a squeezing effect. Moreover, the conditions under which the steady-state amplitude is maximized and minimized with respect to this phase difference are derived. In addition, we analytically determine how the parametric excitation and noise modify the cubic-nonlinearity-induced bifurcation structure. Based on these findings, we propose a squeezing mechanism that exploits the properties of the unstable regime, unlike conventional approaches. Numerical simulations incorporating stochastic noise reveal the emergence of squeezing, although the effect is weaker than in the stable regime. These results suggest that the unstable regime may offer a possible route for utilizing previously unexplored characteristics.
Optical parametric amplification is a crucial technology for the production of continuous-wave squeezed vacuum, which is now applied to gravitational-wave interferometry and other highly sensitive measurements of optical phase. The amplifiers employed in gravitational-wave detection are resonantly enhanced with optical cavities, which introduces nontrivial dynamics to their operation and requires a frequency-domain model of the relations between optical fields. In this work, input-output relations between optical fields entering, circulating in, and exiting a model amplifier are solved directly to produce frequency-domain relations that fully incorporate the cavity dynamics. We also provide low-order zero-pole-gain expansions for these relations to facilitate their analysis from a feedback control perspective. In the limit of small cavity decay rates, our relations are shown to reduce to relations previously derived under a Hamiltonian formalism. Expressions for amplifier figures of merit and for squeezed quadrature variances are also analyzed. Along the way, we examine how information about the amplifier performance can be extracted from the frequency dependence of the input-output relations, providing characterization methods that are complementary to methods that examine the static amplifier behavior.
Using a stabilizing quadrature-feedback scheme the thermal motion of an on-chip opto-electromechanical resonator is squeezed far beyond the limit of classical parametric squeezing. It is shown that feedback on the Y quadrature by itself can already squeeze the thermal motion of the resonator, but the maximum achievable squeezing level is limited by the imprecision noise. By combining the feedback and parametric pumping a record of 15.1 dB of classical noise squeezing is demonstrated. This not only largely exceeds the 3 dB limit for regular squeezing, but is also deeper than ever can be achieved with feedback cooling. The detector-resonator interaction is analyzed within the semi-classical framework and it is shown that using this feedback-stabilized parametric pumping technique true quantum-squeezed states can be prepared when the resonator starts off close to its ground state, and that the ultimate amount of squeezing depends on the minimum detuning that can be achieved.
We develop a theory for nondegenerate parametric resonance in a tunable superconducting cavity. We focus on nonlinear effects that are caused by nonlinear Josephson elements connected to the cavity. We analyze parametric amplification in a strong nonlinear regime at the parametric-instability threshold, and we calculate maximum gain values. Above the threshold, in the parametric-oscillator regime, the cavity linear response diverges at the oscillator frequency at all pump strengths. We show that this divergence is related to the continuous degeneracy of the free oscillator state with respect to the phase. Applying on-resonance input lifts the degeneracy and removes the divergence. We also investigate quantum noise squeezing. It is shown that in the strong amplification regime, the noise undergoes four-mode squeezing, and that, in this regime, the output signal-to-noise ratio can significantly exceed the input value. We also analyze the intermode frequency conversion and identify the parameters at which full conversion is achieved.
We present a single-quadrature feedback scheme able to overcome the conventional 3 dB limit on parametric squeezing. The method is experimentally demonstrated in a micromechanical system based on a cantilever with a magnetic tip. The cantilever is detected at low temperature by a SQUID susceptometer, while parametric pumping is obtained by modulating the magnetic field gradient at twice the cantilever frequency. A maximum squeezing of 11.5 dB and 11.3 dB is observed, respectively, in the response to a sinusoidal test signal and in the thermomechanical noise. So far, the maximum squeezing factor is limited only by the maximum achievable parametric modulation. The proposed technique might be used to squeeze one quadrature of a mechanical resonator below the quantum noise level, even without the need for a quantum limited detector.
The optical parametric oscillator is one of the most well-characterized devices in nonlinear optics, with many useful applications, especially as a frequency converter and as a wide-band amplifier. Novel discoveries made with these devices in the quantum domain include demonstrations of large amounts of both single-mode and two-mode squeezing, and, in the two-mode case, significant quantum intensity correlations between the two modes and quadrature correlations, which provided the first experimental demonstration of the original Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) paradox. In this chapter, a systematic theory is developed of quantum fluctuations in the degenerate parametric oscillator. The quantum statistical effects produced by the degenerate parametric amplifier and oscillator have been intensely studied. As we have seen, the amount of transient squeezing produced in an ideal lossless parametric amplifier was calculated using asymptotic methods by Crouch and Braunstein. It was found to scale inversely with the square root of the initial pump photon number. When the system is put into a cavity, and driving and dissipation are introduced, we find that the steady state of a driven degenerate parametric oscillator bifurcates. There is a single steady state at low driving strengths, but, as the driving field increases, a threshold value is reached and the single state splits and forms two stable states. Below the threshold, a linearized analysis of squeezing in the quantum quadratures is possible; while above this threshold, or critical point, the tunneling time between the two states due to quantum fluctuations can be calculated.