Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Quantum nondemolition measurements and squeezing in atomic three-level systems
J.-Ph. Poizat, Philippe Grangier
Abstract
We present a theoretical study of the quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement of an optical intensity in an atomic three-level system, using a quantum linear response theory recently developed. The principle of this scheme is to use the two-photon crossed-phase- modulation effect, in order to couple the quantum intensity fluctuations of the `signal' beam to the quantum phase fluctuations of the `meter' beam. The predictions of the complete theory are compared with recent experimental results using a sodium atomic beam, which include the observation of both squeezing and QND effects.