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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Retrieving squeezing from classically noisy light in second-harmonic generation

Timothy C. Ralph, Andrew G. White

Published May 1, 1995• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the results of a study of the quantum noise properties of a squeezing system involving a three-level laser pumping two similar second-harmonic-generating crystals. We show that squeezing that has been obscured by intensity and phase noise from the pump laser may be retrieved by difference detection of both second-harmonic outputs. Similarly, the squeezed vacuum formed by combining the two outputs on a 50/50 beam splitter will be squeezed at frequencies that are classically noisy in the individual beams.

DOI
10.1364/josab.12.000833

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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America•Jan 1, 1990•0 citations
We report the results of a study of the quantum noise properties of a squeezing system involving a three-level laser pumping two similar second-harmonic-generating crystals. We show that squeezing that has been obscured by intensity and phase noise from the pump laser may be retrieved by difference detection of both second-harmonic outputs. Similarly, the squeezed vacuum formed by combining the two outputs on a 50/50 beam splitter will be squeezed at frequencies that are classically noisy in the individual beams.
The characteristics of squeezed light generated by both passive (occurring in a cavity external to a laser) and active (occurring within a laser cavity) second-harmonic generation (SHG) are investigated and contrasted. Squeezing of both the fundamental and the second harmonic is discussed, and the issue of doubly versus singly resonant behavior is addressed. We examine passive squeezing by explicitly modeling the intrinsically noisy output of the pump laser and coupling it to a passive, multiport, lossy SHG cavity. Low-frequency degradation of the squeezing caused by the laser pump noise is predicted and provides a probable explanation for previous discrepancies between theory and experiment. Active squeezing is quantitatively modeled by a three-level laser model that retains all laser dynamics. Previously disparate predictions are reconciled. For one parameter set two regimes of squeezing are predicted: 50% squeezing at frequencies lower than the laser relaxation oscillation, and near-perfect squeezing at frequencies above. A particular problem of active squeezing is highlighted: The fast dephasing of the laser coherence introduces considerable excess noise likely to mask squeezing in experimental situations. We conclude that, although passive SHG is a practical source of squeezing, active SHG is unlikely to be so in the foreseeable future.
Machida and Yamamoto used negative feedback from a conventional photodetector to stabilize a laser's intensity and thus to obtain sub-shot-noise photon statistics within the feedback loop. Out-of-Ioop light extracted at a beam splitter, however, displayed super-shot-noise statistics. This behavior can be understood both quantum mechanically and semiclassically. Quantum mechanically the culprit is the vacuum field that enters the beam splitter’s second input port. I describe a technique for extracting sub-shot-noise light by replacing the culprit vacuum field with squeezed light generated by a nonlinear device—a squeezer—that is pumped by a portion of the laser light. Moreover, even if the unstabilized laser is shot-noise-limited, the extracted light can have a better intensity SNR; this signal-to-noise improvement requires both feedback and squeezing.
The authors consider a laser with intracavity second-harmonic generation and injected signal at either the second-harmonic or the fundamental frequency. With a strong injected signal at the second-harmonic frequency, near-perfect phase squeezing at non-zero classical intensity is found. A weak injected signal at the second harmonic gives 50% intensity squeezing in the output at the second harmonic, at an adjustable frequency. A moderate injected signal at the fundamental gives 50% intensity squeezing at the second harmonic for a relatively small nonlinearity.
We consider the process of second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a cavity that is resonant for both the fundamental- and second-harmonic modes. It has been previously shown that such a system displays a phase instability leading to self-pulsing and that one gets important intensity squeezing on both the fundamental- and second-harmonic mode for pump intensities close to but below, this instability threshold. Such a squeezing has been recently observed. We have analytically calculated the intensity-noise spectrum of the frequency-doubled field above such an instability threshold, using a semiclassical input-output technique for the treatment of quantum fluctuations.1 Such a method, introduced to deal with fluctuations around a stable solution, has been generalized to the self-pulsing domain. As expected, the instability brings excess noise to the output beams, especially around the zero-frequency, the self-oscillation frequency, and its harmonics. Remarkably, some regions exist in which where the noise increase is small; squeezing still occurs in this frequency range far in the instability domain.
The four-wave-mixing interactions produced by pumping at two well-separated frequencies can couple four different radiation modes to generate a new kind of squeezed state of light. A dual-frequency homodyne detection scheme is described and is used to observe this type of nonclassical correlation. Initial experimental results in an optical fiber show a noise level 20% below the vacuum noise level for the output of the dual-frequency detector, even though the noise at each individual detector remains above the vacuum level.
We present new results for the quantum noise reduction owing to the mth harmonic generation (m = ½, 2, 3) in a laser. Study of such a source of light with noise beyond the quantum limit is now in progress.1,2 We consider this problem for both the laser with conventional random pumping and the laser with reduced pump noise, i.e., the sub-Poissonian laser. In the case of the laser with a conventional pump, the noise in the mth harmonic can be suppressed by m times as compared to the shot noise limit. For the sub-Poissonian laser, perfect noise reduction can be achieved in any harmonic mode. Cross correlations between the fundamental mode and the harmonic mode lead to the quantum noise interference effect, which manifests itself in the noise of the total photon flux from the laser. The system with two nonlinear crystals inside the laser cavity can serve as a source of two perfectly squeezed modes with divisible frequencies. The first crystal is driven by the external field of frequency 2ω. This field is downconverted in the crystal to the frequency ω, which is the frequency of lasing. In the second crystal the lasing field is again downconverted to the frequency ω/2. The lasing mode m and the subharmonic mode ω/2 from such a laser can be perfectly squeezed; that means complete quantumnoise reduction of these two modes if mixing with local oscillators of phase shifts π/2 is used.