Vacuum state squeezing versus squeezed classical noise: a test using conditional homodyne detection

Abstract

Measurement of the squeezed fluctuations of an optical field by the method of conditional homodyne detection is discussed. It is shown that conditional homodyne detection is able to distinguish qualitatively between vacuum-state squeezing and squeezed classical noise. Whereas for conventional squeezed-light detection, only a quantitative distinction can be made, based on the setting of the shot-noise level, under conditional detection, the presence of classical noise changes the actual shape of the measured correlation function. The correlations show a positive peak due to the unsqeezed classical noise frequencies, set inside the negative dip associated with the squeezed fluctuations. The width in time of the positive peak is the larger of the detector response time and the inverse of the classical noise bandwidth. The fundamental distinction between vacuum-state squeezing and squeezed classical noise is that there is no positive peak, even in the limiting form of a delta-function, when the unsqueezed frequencies correspond to vacuum state modes. Implications for the literal interpretation of vacuum fluctuations, such as is adopted in stochastic electrodynamics, are discussed. The ideas are presented in general terms and illustrated by an example which treats the generation and detection of broadband squeezed light, including finite-bandwidth classical noise, within the framework of the quantum trajectory theory of cascaded open systems.