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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Quantum wideband traveling-wave analysis of a degenerate parametric amplifier

Carlton M. Caves, David D. Crouch

Published Oct 1, 1987• 132 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We develop a wideband traveling-wave formalism 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 operators through the nonlinear medium. In addition to the parametric nonlinearity, the Langevin equations include absorption and associated fluctuations, dispersion (phase mismatching), and pump quantum fluctuations. We analyze the dominant effects of phase mismatching and pump quantum fluctuations on the squeezing produced by a degenerate parametric amplifier.

DOI
10.1364/josab.4.001535

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We develop a wideband traveling-wave formalism 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 operators through the nonlinear medium. In addition to the parametric nonlinearity, the Langevin equations include absorption and associated fluctuations, dispersion (phase mismatching), and pump quantum fluctuations. We analyze the dominant effects of phase mismatching and pump quantum fluctuations on the squeezing produced by a degenerate parametric amplifier.
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.
Differential equations which describe the steady state spatial evolution of nonclassical light are established using standard quantum field theoretic techniques. A Schroedinger equation for the state vector of the optical field is derived using the quantum analog of the slowly varying envelope approximation (SVEA). The steady state solutions are those that satisfy the time independent Schroedinger equation. The resulting eigenvalue problem then leads to the spatial propagation equations. For the degenerate parametric amplifier this method shows that the squeezing parameter obey nonlinear differential equations coupled by the amplifier gain and phase mismatch. The solution to these differential equations is equivalent to one obtained from the classical three wave mixing steady state solution to the parametric amplifier with a nondepleted pump.
Abstract: We have performed a quantum mechanical analysis of travelling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) in order to investigate five experimental phenomena related to their operations, namely the effect of impedance mismatch, the presence of upper idler modes, the presence of quantum and thermal noise, the generation of squeezed states, and the preservation of pre-squeezed states during amplification. Our analysis uses momentum operators to describe the spatial evolution of quantised modes along a TWPA. We calculate the restriction placed on pump amplitude as well as amplifier gain as a result of impedance mismatch between a TWPA and its external system. We apply our analysis to upper idler modes and demonstrate that they will result in suppressed gain. We show that an ideal TWPA is indeed quantum-limited—i.e. it introduces a half-quantum of zero-point fluctuation which is the minimum possible noise contribution for a phase-preserving linear amplifier. We analyse the thermal noise associated with a TWPA by considering the effect of distributed sources along an amplifier transmission line. Our analysis predicts a doubling of thermal noise in the high gain limit as a result of wave-mixing between signal and idler modes. We study the operation of a TWPA in the presence of a DC bias current, and have shown that highly squeezed states can in principle be generated. However, amplifying a pre-squeezed state using a non-degenerate TWPA generally reduces the squeezing advantage.
Abstract We have performed a quantum mechanical analysis of travelling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) in order to investigate five experimental phenomena related to their operations, namely the effect of impedance mismatch, the presence of upper idler modes, the presence of quantum and thermal noise, the generation of squeezed states, and the preservation of pre-squeezed states during amplification. Our analysis uses momentum operators to describe the spatial evolution of quantised modes along a TWPA. We calculate the restriction placed on pump amplitude as well as amplifier gain as a result of impedance mismatch between a TWPA and its external system. We apply our analysis to upper idler modes and demonstrate that they will result in suppressed gain. We show that an ideal TWPA is indeed quantum-limited—i.e. it introduces a half-quantum of zero-point fluctuation which is the minimum possible noise contribution for a phase-preserving linear amplifier. We analyse the thermal noise associated with a TWPA by considering the effect of distributed sources along an amplifier transmission line. Our analysis predicts a doubling of thermal noise in the high gain limit as a result of wave-mixing between signal and idler modes. We study the operation of a TWPA in the presence of a DC bias current, and have shown that highly squeezed states can in principle be generated. However, amplifying a pre-squeezed state using a non-degenerate TWPA generally reduces the squeezing advantage.
The paper describes a phase-mismatched Fokker–Planck equation formulation for parametric amplification in periodically inverted nonlinear media. An analytical solution of the phase-mismatched Fokker–Planck equation and the amplitude quantum fluctuation after passing through the quasi-phase-matched (QPM) device are obtained. The calculated results for the QPM device conform to that of the Langevin equation in the case of no loss k=0, and give a general solution for k≠0. From this one can derive knowledge of the dependence of squeezing on the loss coefficient k and make a comparison between the QPM device and a phase matched device at the threshold k=ε0.