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Physical Review A

Modulation, signal, and quantum noise in interferometers

Brian J. Meers, K. A. Strain

Published Oct 1, 1991• 61 citations

Abstract

We discuss the generation of quantum noise in interferometers. A heuristic model is described that enables different characteristics of the noise to be understood and calculated. In particular, the effects of modulation on signal and noise in interferometers are discussed. It is seen that the mixing in of quantum noise from different modes of the vacuum can degrade the signal-to-noise ratio of a measurement in a variety of apparently different physical situations. Michelson interferometers with both internal and external phase modulation are specifically considered, but the results are easily extendable to any type of interferometer. We also comment upon some implications for the use of squeezing in interferometers. For examples, we argue that it is possible, even in lossy narrow-band interferometers, for squeezing to reduce significantly the effective quantum-noise power.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.44.4693

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We study the photon counting noise in optical interferometers used for gravitational wave detection. In order to reduce quantum noise a squeezed vacuum state is injected into the usually unused input port. Here, we specifically investigate the so-called “dark port case,” when the beam splitter is oriented close to 90° to the incoming laser beam, such that nearly all photons go to one output port of the interferometer, and only a small fraction of photons is seen in the other port (“dark port”). For this case it had been suggested that signal amplification is possible without concurrent noise amplification [R. Barak and Y. Ben-Aryeh, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 25 , 361 (2008)]. We show that by injection of a squeezed vacuum state into the second input port, counting noise is reduced for large values of the squeezing factor, however the signal is not amplified. Signal strength only depends on the intensity of the laser beam.