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Physical Review A

Theory of feedback-generated squeezed states

H. A. Haus, Y. Yamamoto

Published Jul 1, 1986• 83 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Conservation of commutator brackets imposes constraints on the response of linear systems. From these constraints the minimum uncertainties of in-phase and quadrature field components in linearized parametric and oscillator systems can be determined. In this paper, a cavity containing a ``degenerate parametric wall'' is analyzed and the resulting equations are found to be identical with those of a saturated oscillator. The ideal parametric wall resonator has lower noise than the saturated oscillator. Feedback is put onto an oscillator formed by the parametric wall, and onto the saturated oscillator, by degenerate heterodyne (homodyne) detection of the oscillator output. It is shown in both cases that the field fluctuations incident upon the photodetector in the feedback loop are ``squeezed,'' i.e., the photodetector current fluctuation level is below shot noise. A semiclassical analysis arrives at the same expression for the detector current fluctuations in the limit of a highly saturated oscillator, thus permitting an alternative interpretation of these results. However, a quantum nondemolition measurement via a nonlinear interferometer ``extracts'' the squeezed states, predicted by the quantum analysis, from the feedback loop. This result has no semiclassical interpretation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.34.270

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Conservation of commutator brackets imposes constraints on the response of linear systems. From these constraints the minimum uncertainties of in-phase and quadrature field components in linearized parametric and oscillator systems can be determined. In this paper, a cavity containing a degenerate parametric wall'' is analyzed and the resulting equations are found to be identical with those of a saturated oscillator. The ideal parametric wall resonator has lower noise than the saturated oscillator. Feedback is put onto an oscillator formed by the parametric wall, and onto the saturated oscillator, by degenerate heterodyne (homodyne) detection of the oscillator output. It is shown in both cases that the field fluctuations incident upon the photodetector in the feedback loop are squeezed,'' i.e., the photodetector current fluctuation level is below shot noise. A semiclassical analysis arrives at the same expression for the detector current fluctuations in the limit of a highly saturated oscillator, thus permitting an alternative interpretation of these results. However, a quantum nondemolition measurement via a nonlinear interferometer ``extracts'' the squeezed states, predicted by the quantum analysis, from the feedback loop. This result has no semiclassical interpretation.
A new scheme for generating an amplitude-squeezed state is proposed. The photon-flux fluctuation of a semiconductor-laser output wave is measured with a quantum nondemolition (QND) detector, and is negatively fed back to the laser pumping current. The operator Langevin equations are derived by combining the quantum-mechanical analyses on the laser internal-external field fluctuations, the quantum nondemolition detector based on an optical Kerr effect, and a negative-feedback circuit. The output wave features a reduced photon number noise below the standard quantum limit, 〈(\ensuremath{\Delta}n^)2{)}^{2})2〉^〉, and an enhanced phase noise above that, 〈(\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\psi}^)2{)}^{2})2〉>(1/4)〈n^${〉}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$, while the minimum uncertainty product is still preserved. The observed photoelectron statistics in a negative-feedback GaAs laser diode using a conventional p-i-n photodiode (not a QND detector) are shown to exhibit sub-Poissonian statistics with the variance 〈(\ensuremath{\Delta}n^)2{)}^{2})2〉apeq20.26〈n^〉. The measured photocurrent fluctuation spectral density is also indicated to be below the standard quantum limit by a factor of 0.2 (=-7 dB). The experimental results also confirm that such amplitude squeezing is only observed inside the feedback loop and cannot be extracted from the loop unless a quantum nondemolition detector is used.
Squeezed states of the electromagnetic field are generated by degenerate parametric downconversion in a sub-threshold optical parametric oscillator. Reductions in photocurrent noise greater than 60% (−4 dB) below the limit set by the vacuum fluctuations of the field are observed in a balanced homodyne detector. A quantitative comparison with theory suggests that the observed noise reductions result from a field that in the absence of avoidable linear attenuation would be squeezed more than tenfold. A degree of squeezing of approximately fivefold is inferred for the actual field emitted through one mirror of the optical parametric oscillator. An explicit demonstration of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle for the electromagnetic field is made from the measurements, which show that the field state produced by the downconversion process is a state of minimum uncertainty.
This paper clarifies the origins of the standard quantum limit for the amplitude noise of a laser-oscillator outgoing field. The amplitude noise within the cavity bandwidth, \ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\omega}/Q, is ultimately caused by the pump amplitude fluctuation, while that above the cavity bandwidth, \ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\ge}\ensuremath{\omega}/Q, is due to the field zero-point fluctuation. The uncertainty product of the amplitude- and phase-noise spectra at an extremely high pumping level is still larger than the Heisenberg minimum-uncertainty product because of the presence of nonstationary phase-diffusion noise. In this sense, an ordinary laser oscillator is not a quantum-limited device. This paper suggests that a laser oscillator can produce an amplitude-squeezed state in itself if the pump amplitude fluctuation is suppressed below the ordinary shot-noise level. The paper discusses possible schemes for suppressing pump fluctuation, commutator bracket preservation without pump fluctuation, and resulting amplitude and phase spectra. The similarity of and difference between a pump-noise-suppressed laser and a cavity degenerate parametric amplifier are delineated.
This thesis is primarily a theoretical study of degenerate parametric amplification as a means of generating squeezed-state light. i) A wideband traveling-wave formalism is developed for analyzing quantum mechanically a degenerate parametric amplifier. The formalism is based on spatial differential equations — spatial Langevin equations — that propagate temporal Fourier components of the field through the nonlinear medium. In addition to the parametric nonlinearity, the Langevin equations include absorption and associated fluctuations, dispersion, and pump quantum fluctuations. The dominant effects of dispersion and pump quantum fluctuations on the squeezing produced by a degenerate parametric amplifier are analyzed. ii) The wideband formalism of i) is used to carry out a more detailed analysis of the effects of phase mismatching. With the assumption of a lossless medium and a classical pump, we find that parametric amplification is capable of generating squeezed-state light over a wide band if materials with large χ(2) nonlinearities can be found, and that the squeezing bandwidth can be enhanced by phase mismatching away from degeneracy. iii) We consider again the effect of pump quantum fluctuations on the squeezing produced by parametric amplification. We perform discrete-mode calculations for a parametric amplifier with a quantum pump, and discuss some of the limitations of calculations of this sort in quantum optics. We derive stochastic differential equations (SDEs) for one- and two-mode parametric amplifiers, and from them obtain an iterative solution showing that pump quantum fluctuations impose a limitation on the degree of squeezing obtainable from a parametric amplifier. iv) A possible application of squeezing is considered; in particular, we study the effects of squeezing the intracavity noise in a laser oscillator. We solve the classical noise problem of a realistic laser model by making a bold — and possibly unrealizable — assumption, that the in-phase and quadrature Langevin sources which are responsible for the "noisiness" of the laser can be squeezed. We show that the effect of squeezing the in-phase quadrature is to reduce the phase noise, including the linewidth, of the laser but, due to amplitude-phase coupling, not to eliminate them altogether.
All-optical feedback can be effected by putting the output of a source cavity through a Faraday isolator and into a second cavity which is coupled to the source cavity by a nonlinear crystal. If the driven cavity is heavily damped, then it can be adiabatically eliminated and a master equation or quantum Langevin equation derived for the first cavity alone. This is done for an input bath in an arbitrary state, and for an arbitrary nonlinear coupling. If the intercavity coupling involves only the intensity (or one quadrature) of the driven cavity, then the effect on the source cavity is identical to that which can be obtained from electro-optical feedback using direct (or homodyne) detection. If the coupling involves both quadratures, this equivalence no longer holds and a coupling linear in the source amplitude can produce a nonclassical state in the source cavity. The analogous electro-optic scheme using heterodyne detection introduces extra noise which prevents the production of nonclassical light. Unlike the electro-optical case, the all-optical feedback loop has an output beam (reflected from the second cavity). We show that this may be squeezed, even if the source cavity remains in a classical state.
We develop a systematic theory of quantum fluctuations in the driven optical parametric oscillator, including the region near threshold. This allows us to treat the limits imposed by nonlinearities to quantum squeezing and noise reduction in this nonequilibrium quantum phase transition. In particular, we compute the squeezing spectrum near threshold and calculate the optimum value. We find that the optimal noise reduction occurs at different driving fields, depending on the ratio of damping rates. The largest spectral noise reductions are predicted to occur with a very high-QQQ second-harmonic cavity. Our analytic results agree well with stochastic numerical simulations. We also compare the results obtained in the positive-PPP representation, as a fully quantum-mechanical calculation, with the truncated Wigner phase-space equation, also known as the semiclassical theory.