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European Journal of Physics

Manipulating the vacuum: squeezed states of light

Stephen Mark Barnett, Claire R Gilson

Published Oct 1, 1988• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

All quantum states of light exhibit field fluctuations even the vacuum state. Quantum opticians have succeeded in manipulating the fields to produce squeezed light with a field that fluctuates at a lower noise level than the vacuum field. These states have electric or magnetic fields that are more accurately prescribed than in the vacuum state. The application of squeezed light will provide new opportunities in high-precision measurement. It will also allow one to modify fundamental vacuum field effects such as spontaneous emission and the Lamb shift.

DOI
10.1088/0143-0807/9/4/003

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All quantum states of light exhibit field fluctuations even the vacuum state. Quantum opticians have succeeded in manipulating the fields to produce squeezed light with a field that fluctuates at a lower noise level than the vacuum field. These states have electric or magnetic fields that are more accurately prescribed than in the vacuum state. The application of squeezed light will provide new opportunities in high-precision measurement. It will also allow one to modify fundamental vacuum field effects such as spontaneous emission and the Lamb shift.
All quantum states of light exhibit field fluctuation even in the vacuum state. There are many physical phenomena which result from vacuum fluctuation. The most prominent example is the spontaneous radiation. In quantum optics and laser physics people have succeeded in producing theoretically even a squeezed state of light that fluctuates at a lower noise level than the vacuum fluctuation. The application of squeezed light will provide new opportunities for high precision measurements. In the present work we consider the quantum superposition of state 0 1 01 y =a + b and work out the variances of the quadrature operators 1 ˆX and 2 ˆX . We have shown that for some values of parameters α and β, the quadrature variances become less than the vacuum fluctuation. This indicates the principle of manipulating vacuum.
Squeezed states of the electromagnetic field are characterized by a reduction of fluctuations for one of two quadrature phase amplitudes below the level of fluctuations for the vacuum state. This reduction is a manifestly quantum or nonclassical feature which is of great interest in its own right but also potentially important for precision measurement with sensitivity beyond the shot-noise or vacuum-state limit. We describe three different experiments in which squeezed light has been generated in our laboratory involving parametric downconversion, intracavity frequency doubling, and optical bistability with two-state atoms. By employing the squeezed light produced by a subthreshold optical parametric oscillator, we have achieved improvements in sensitivity beyond the vacuum-state limit for the detection of both phase and amplitude changes of the electromagnetic field. An alternate route to sensitivity beyond the vacuum-state limit is through quantum nondemolition measurement, where we have suggested and are implementing a scheme involving parametric conversion and polarization mixing.
This chapter is a short summary of recent developments concerning quantum noise. A quantum state is said to be squeezed when the fluctuations of one observable have been reduced below that of the vacuum state, that is, the ‘shot-noise’ level of the coherent state. Squeezed states are detected using the technique known as balanced homodyne detection. The chapter reviews the reductions in phase and amplitude fluctuations of a squeezed state and discusses their use in interferometry and spectroscopy. The phase-dependent nature of the squeezed field results in line-narrowing of the incoherent spectrum for particular phase choices while other choices of phase result in line-broadening. Interferometry with squeezed light as well as quantum non-demolition measurements are attempting to assess quantum measurement limits in order to further extend the experimental manipulation of light.
Electromagnetic fields, with the noise on one quadrature component reduced to below the quantum mechanical zero-point fluctuation level and the noise on the other quadrature component enhanced to above it, are currently of great interest in quantum optics because of their potential applications to various precision measurements. Such squeezed states of light are usually produced by imposing nonlinear unitary evolution on coherent (or vacuum) states. On the other hand, squeezed states with reduced photon number noise and enhanced phase noise are generated directly by a constant current-driven semiconductor laser. This is the simplest scheme for the generation of nonclassical light, and so far it has yielded the largest quantum noise reduction. The mutual coupling between a lasing junction and an external electrical circuit provides opportunities for exploring the macroscopic and microscopic quantum effects in open systems.
Vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field set a fundamental limit to the sensitivity of a variety of measurements, including magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We report the use of squeezed microwave fields, which are engineered quantum states of light for which fluctuations in one field quadrature are reduced below the vacuum level, to enhance the detection sensitivity of an ensemble of electronic spins at millikelvin temperatures. By shining a squeezed vacuum state on the input port of a microwave resonator containing the spins, we obtain a 1.2-dB noise reduction at the spectrometer output compared to the case of a vacuum input. This result constitutes a proof of principle of the application of quantum metrology to magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field set a fundamental limit to the sensitivity of a variety of measurements, including magnetic resonance spectroscopy.We report the use of squeezed microwave fields, which are engineered quantum states of light for which fluctuations in one field quadrature are reduced below the vacuum level, to enhance the detection sensitivity of an ensemble of electronic spins at millikelvin temperatures.By shining a squeezed vacuum state on the input port of a microwave resonator containing the spins, we obtain a 1.2-dB noise reduction at the spectrometer output compared to the case of a vacuum input.This result constitutes a proof of principle of the application of quantum metrology to magnetic resonance spectroscopy.