Reduction to the Fock state via a degenerate four-wave mixing

S. Ya. Kilin

F. Castelli, Pierfranco Dotti

Jiaxin Gong, P. K. Aravind

An investigation is carried out of higher-order squeezing in a class of three- and four-wave mixing processes that can be modeled by a master equation. In (2N)th-order squeezing, as defined by Hong and Mandel, the Nth-power of the variance of a field quadrature falls below the value it would have for a coherent state. Higher-order squeezing is of interest because (i) it occurs in many processes in which ordinary (or second-order) squeezing occurs, and (ii) it allows a much larger fractional noise reduction to be achieved than ordinary squeezing. The master equation we use models a degenerate three- or four-wave process and takes into account the losses in the signal mode. We convert the master equation into a Fokker-Planck equation for the Wigner distribution function and solve it for a wide range of initial signal states (including thermal, coherent, Fock states, and mixtures of these). Results are presented for the enhancement of fourth- and sixth-order squeezing over second-order squeezing. Differences in the character of higher-order squeezing for different input states are pointed out. The role of losses in limiting the amount of achievable squeezing in all orders is especially investigated.

M. Pinard, B. Kleinmann, G. Grynberg

M. Schiffer, G. Ankerhold, E. Cruse +1 more

The process of degenerate four-wave mixing is studied experimentally in dense sodium vapor in a rare-gas atmosphere. The influence of trapped fluorescence light on the ground-state orientation is shown to be responsible for the observed strong reduction of saturation phenomena with increased sodium density. The interpretation is based on a simple model and is supported by results obtained by suppressing the fluorescence.

Binh Trong