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Physical Review A

Generating and detecting short-duration pulses of squeezed light

Bernard Yurke, Philippe Grangier, Richard E. Slusher, Mary J. Potasek

Published Apr 1, 1987• 76 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Mode-locked lasers provide a train of high-intensity light pulses that can be used to pump nonlinear media in order to produce squeezed light. The squeezed light produced would consist of a train of short-duration pulses. It is shown here that a homodyne detector using a pulsed local oscillator can be used to observe the squeezing even when the response time of the photodetector is much longer than the local oscillator or squeezed light pulse width.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.35.3586

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A transient noise measurement scheme is described to observe pulsed squeezing generated by means of parametric downconversion of a Q-switched laser. In the usual implementation of balanced-homodyne detection, the vacuumstate noise level is determined by the average local oscillator power. However, if the local oscillator is derived from a pulsed laser, as is the case in our experiments, the associated peak power can easily saturate the detectors along with the subsequent electronics. To overcome this limitation we have implemented a hybrid frequency-time-domain measurement scheme in which the vacuum-state noise level is determined by the peak, instead of the average, local oscillator power, thus avoiding the saturation problem.

Optics Letters•Apr 1, 1990•22 citations
Mode-locked lasers provide a train of high-intensity light pulses that can be used to pump nonlinear media in order to produce squeezed light. The squeezed light produced would consist of a train of short-duration pulses. It is shown here that a homodyne detector using a pulsed local oscillator can be used to observe the squeezing even when the response time of the photodetector is much longer than the local oscillator or squeezed light pulse width.
The degree of squeezing generated by parametric downconversion or four-wave mixing can be limited by the ratio of the nonlinear coupling to the linear losses in many practical systems. This ratio can be enhanced by increasing the pump power used for the nonlinear coupling in many solid nonlinear systems where the linear losses are not directly related to the nonlinear squeezing process. Pulsed pump sources are attractive for optimizing the nonlinear coupling-to-loss ratio. We have shown1 that homodyne detection can be used to detect the pulsed squeezing generated by a mode-locked pulse train from the pump laser. A portion of the pump beam is used as the local oscillator which stroboscopically samples portions of the squeezed light pulse train. The amount of squeezing which can be measured as a function of the relative durations of the pump and local oscillator pulses is shown. Progress of recent experiments using both four-wave mixing and parametric downconversion is described.
Squeezed light in the form of a train of pulses, each approximately 100 ps in width, has been generated by parametric down-conversion in KTiOPO4{\mathrm{O}}_{4}O4​ crystals. The measured noise reduction in the quiet quadrature of the field is 0.6 dB below the shot-noise limit. The quadrature noise components are measured with a balanced homodyne detector using a pulse train for the local oscillator. The noise reduction extends over a broad spectrum and has important implications for precision measurement at very short time scales.
A scheme is proposed, in which the pulse train of squeezed light is generated via forward four-wave mixing through a nonlinear medium with third-order polarizability, coherently pumped by a train of pulses of modelocked laser. One of the quadrature noise compoments of the squeezed light is measured with a balanced homodyne detector using a pulse train as the local oscillation. The theoretical results show that the fairly high-intensity output of squeezed light can be achieved, and the noise-power spectrum of the light is almost completely squeezed and exhibits the form of a train of pulses, but the shape of squeezed spectrum is reversed with respect to that of the pulse train of the input light.
We report pulsed squeezed-light generation by means of an optical parametric downconverter that is pumped by the second harmonic of a mode-locked Q-switched laser. Using the fundamental beam of the laser as a local oscillator, we observe 2-dB squeezing for a parametric gain of 2.0. This local oscillator, however, is nonoptimal because of its spatiotemporal mode mismatch with the squeezed mode generated by the downconverter. We describe an experiment in which a matched local oscillator is generated with the use of an optical parametric amplifier that is pumped by the same laser as is the downconverter. In this case, 2-dB squeezing is observed for a parametric gain of 1.5. The present experimental setup is limited by the uncontrollable phase fluctuations that prohibit us from making squeezing measurements at higher parametric gains.
Nowadays, the realization of quantum computations and communications based on continuous variables has attracted a significant attention due to a substantial expansion of the system dimensionality. The main progress in this area is attributed to the implementation of multimode systems based on squeezed states of light. One of the simplest ways to generate such states relies upon their producing in a single-pass optical parametric amplifier (OPA) using ultrafast pumping. However, for homodyne detection of such multimode states, the profile of the local oscillator (LO) must perfectly match the profile of the measured mode. Usually, this is not the case; therefore a proper treatment of multimode squeezing is required. In this work, we study both theoretically and experimentally the multimode squeezed light generated in type-0 and type-II OPA. We characterize such sources and investigate the degree of squeezing in dependence on the LO spectral profile, employing a pulse shaping technique. The theoretical analysis is performed using the Schmidt-mode theory. This work might have a significant impact on the realization of multimode quantum protocols
A transient noise measurement scheme is described to observe pulsed squeezing generated by means of parametric downconversion of a Q-switched laser. In the usual implementation of balanced-homodyne detection, the vacuumstate noise level is determined by the average local oscillator power. However, if the local oscillator is derived from a pulsed laser, as is the case in our experiments, the associated peak power can easily saturate the detectors along with the subsequent electronics. To overcome this limitation we have implemented a hybrid frequency-time-domain measurement scheme in which the vacuum-state noise level is determined by the peak, instead of the average, local oscillator power, thus avoiding the saturation problem.