We demonstrate the methods for increasing the observed squeezing level in the generation of squeezed states of light at 1064 nm with periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal. We analyze the technical limits to the reduction of noise in the squeezed quadrature theoretically, including the intra-cavity loss of the optical parametric amplifier (OPA) cavity, the normalized amplitude, the detection frequency, and the mode matching on the balanced homodyning stage. To observe a high degree of squeezing, we improve the quality of mode matching into the OPA cavity and the mode cleaning (MC) cavity experimentally. By optimizing mode matching of the light into cavities, the finesse of the cavities would be higher in practice and the desirable spatial mode can be realized. As the intensity noise of the laser light reach the shot noise limit above the frequency of 1 MHz, which is sufficient for our experiment, so the MC cavity is incorporated to filter higher-order transverse modes of the local oscillator (LO) beam for the balanced homodyne detection. The experimental and theoretical results show that it is essential to optimize the mode matching efficiency to generate and detect high degree of squeezing otherwise an inefficiency mode matching will throw away the squeezing and transform the squeezed field into a vacuum field.
We demonstrate the methods for increasing the observed squeezing level in the generation of squeezed states of light at 1064 nm with periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal. We analyze the technical limits to the reduction of noise in the squeezed quadrature theoretically, including the intra-cavity loss of the optical parametric amplifier (OPA) cavity, the normalized amplitude, the detection frequency, and the mode matching on the balanced homodyning stage. To observe a high degree of squeezing, we improve the quality of mode matching into the OPA cavity and the mode cleaning (MC) cavity experimentally. By optimizing mode matching of the light into cavities, the finesse of the cavities would be higher in practice and the desirable spatial mode can be realized. As the intensity noise of the laser light reach the shot noise limit above the frequency of 1 MHz, which is sufficient for our experiment, so the MC cavity is incorporated to filter higher-order transverse modes of the local oscillator (LO) beam for the balanced homodyne detection. The experimental and theoretical results show that it is essential to optimize the mode matching efficiency to generate and detect high degree of squeezing otherwise an inefficiency mode matching will throw away the squeezing and transform the squeezed field into a vacuum field.
The effect of mode matching on the preparation of the squeezed light at 1064 nm with periodically poled KTiOPO 4 (PPKTP) crystal is reported. We can derive the desired mode by improving the spatial mode matching into optical cavities, including the beam from the laser mode matched to the optical parametric amplifier cavity and mode cleaning cavity; also it is useful for the stability of the locking systems. By increasing the fringe visibility between the squeezed light and the local oscillator beam, a squeezing level of −8.75 dB or even higher could be observed, even with the same experimental parameters as described elsewhere.
Squeezed state of light is an important resource of optical measuerments below the shot noise limit and has been used to improve measurement sensitivity in many areas such as gravitational wave detection, especially in audio frequency region. Compared with the high-frequency squeezed states, the generation of the low-frequency squeezed states is more difficult, because it is limited by several technical noise sources. In this paper we report the observation of more than 2 dB of vacuum squeezing at 1064 nm in the gravitational-wave detection band down to 3 kHz with a double-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The OPO has a configuration of linear cavity consisting of an input coupling mirror with a transmission of 11% at 532 nm and an output coupling mirror with the transmission of 12% at 1064 nm. The nonlinear materials in the OPO is type-I periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) crystal which is chosen for this experiment due to its higher nonlinearity, broader phase matching temperature, and smaller photo-thermal effect. The OPO is pumped by the light of 532 nm from Nd: YVO4/KTP solid-state laser of maximum optical power 3 W. To avoid various noise coupled from the seed beam, the OPO is seeded by vacuum fluctuations instead of coherent field at the fundamental wavelength (1064 nm). A Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) locking scheme is used to lock the OPO cavity length with the signal derived from the reflected pump beam, so as to lock the pump field and also lock the fundamental field. To make both the pump and seed beams resonant simultaneously, the temperature of the PPKTP is carefully adjusted. The squeezed state can be detected on a homodyne detection by interfering it with the local oscillator (LO) and detected by a balanced detector with two photodiodes (EXT500 T) but having the same quantum efficiency of 86% at 1064 nm. The subsequent electronic noise is analyzed with a low-frequency spectrum analyzer, which shows that the audio noise sources from lab enviroment, locking quality, escape efficiency, propagation loss, homodyne efficiency and detection efficiency have effect on the squeezing pruced by an OPO.
Squeezed states are important sources in quantum physics, which have potential applications in fields such as quantum teleportation, quantum information networks, quantum memory, and quantum metrology and precise measurements. For our interest, the squeezed vacuum will be used in the quantum-enhanced optical atomic magnetometers, filling the vacuum port of the probe beam to improve measurement sensitivity. Based on the sub-threshold optical parametric oscillator (OPO) with PPKTP crystal, the squeezed vacuum at rubidium D1 line of 795 nm is obtained. In our work, we investigate the noise sources in an OPO system. By carefully controlling the classical noise source, the squeezing band extends to the analysis frequency of 2.6 kHz. The flat squeezing trace is 2.8 dB below the shot noise limit. In our work, we focus on the difference between the squeezing results at the analysis frequency of kilohertz regime at two different wavelengths, 1064 nm and 795 nm. The difference mainly comes from the absorption of 795 nm laser and its second harmonic at 397.5 nm in crystal (397.5 nm laser is at the edge of transparent window of PPKTP crystal that has an absorption index much higher than at other wavelength). The absorption induced nonlinear loss and thermal instability greatly affect the squeezing results, which is discussed in our work. Squeezing level at 795 nm is worse than at 1064 nm due to the above-mentioned factors. Noise coupling to the detection system limits the squeezing band. In the audio frequency band, squeezing is easily submerged in roll-up noises and the measured squeezing level is limited. Two factors limit the obtained squeezing:the technical noise induced in the detection and the squeezing degradation by the noise coupling of the control beams. In experiment, we carefully control the classical noise at analytical frequency of kilohertz by means of a vacuum-injected OPO, a counter-propagating cavity locking beam with orthogonal polarization, low noise homodyne detector, stable experimental system and quantum noise locking method for squeezing phase locking. Firstly, to preclude the classical noise from coupling the laser source, we use the vacuum injected OPO. A signal beam helps optimize the parametric gain and is blocked in the squeezing measurement process. In order to maintain the OPO, a counter-propagating beam with orthogonal polarization is used for locking the cavity. Then, a low noise balanced homodyne detector with a common-mode rejection ratio of 45 dB helps improve the audio frequency detection. Finally, the quantum noise locking provides a method to lock the relative phase between the coherent beam and the squeezed vacuum field. With the combination of these technical improvements, a squeezed vacuum of 2.8 dB is obtained at the analysis frequency of 2.6-100 kHz. The obtained squeezing level is mainly limited by the relatively large loss in OPO, which is induced by ultra-violet absorption in PPKTP crystal. The generated squeezed field is used to reduce the polarization noise of probe beam in an optical magnetometer, in order to increase detection sensitivity.
Stable, low noise, infrared squeezed state tight at 1064 nm is generated by utilizing optical parametric down-conversion (OPDC) technique based on periodically poled KTiOPO 4 in a optical parametric amplifier (OPA) resonator. A non-classical noise reduction of 2.58 dB below the shot noise is observed through balanced homodyne detection. The squeezed state light is used to set up an imaging system for high-resolution imaging, and it is found that the resolution of image based on the amplitude-squeezed light is 1.26 times larger than that of infrared coherent light under the same intensity. The experimental results indicate that squeezed light is an important non-classical light, which can overcome the coherent laser shot-noise, the classical diffraction limit and limit of quantum noise.
We analyze the influence factors that affect the observed degree of squeezing in generation and detection stages theoretically, including the fluctuations of pump power, the intra-cavity loss of the optical parametric amplifier (OPA) cavity , the phase fluctuation on balanced homodyning stage, the propagation efficiency, the mode matching efficiency, the out-put mirror transmission of the OPA cavity and the quantum efficiency of the detector. The theoretical results show that different loss sources appearing at various stages of the squeezed light generation and detection are far more dominant and in the end limit the squeezing level achievable. The analysis of these parameters will be extremely useful for subsequent experiments.
We investigate the effects of cavity detuning on squeezing in the generation of the squeezed light at 1064 nm with a degenerate optical parametric amplifier (OPA) based on a periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal. We theoretically analyze several effects that lead to cavity detuning, including the displacement and tilt of the incident laser light and the cavity length fluctuations of the OPA. To reduce the influence of the cavity detuning and increase the degree of generated quantum noise reduction, a side-of-fringe locking technique is applied to achieve the resonance between the OPA cavity and the injected laser beam. The experimental results show that the transmitted power through the locked cavity is increased and the cavity detuning is greatly suppressed. After locking of the cavity, we could expect to get a value for the control loop with an accuracy of 10−9 and the locking time is not less than 2 h, which paves the way for the preparation of the squeezed light.