Quantum Fluctuations in Optical Measurements

Michael Z. Smirnov

Masud Mansuripur

Accurate optical sensing and micromanipulation requires sensitive measurements of the position, orientation, and dynamics of small particles—and sometimes even large objects—under consideration. The signals acquired in the process, including those needed for the feedback control of these particles and objects, are inevitably contaminated by quantum fluctuations and noise that accompany the physical processes of optical interference and photodetection (or photon counting). This paper explores the origins of signal fluctuation and quantum noise that are inevitably associated with such sensitive measurements.

P. Stammer, J. Rivera-Dean, E. Pisanty +1 more

Attosecond metrology is the ability to measure ultrafast optical light-wave oscillations, yet its approach has been limited to classical fields. Hence, the influence of the fluctuations of a quantum field on attosecond measurements has remained unexplored. Here, we close this gap by showing that the attosecond streaking measurement of bright quantum light is sensitive to quantum fluctuations of the optical field on the attosecond timescale. The distinct sub-cycle modulations allow to extract the properties of the squeezed field quadrature in regimes where conventional state tomography approaches reach their limitation. With the full quantum optical attosecond streaking scheme developed here, we provide a certification method that can measure quantum squeezing below the shot noise limit, thereby overcoming the problem of tomographically measuring bright quantum light. This opens the way towards quantum optical metrology of field fluctuations with attosecond temporal resolution.

Federico Casagrande, L. A. Lugiato

Serge Reynaud, A. Heidmann, E. Giacobino +1 more

Claude Fabre