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 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.
Continuous variable (CV) audio-band frequency squeezed states at the fiber telecommunication wavelength is an important quantum resource for the practical applications based on optical fiber. As is well known, the optical power attenuation and phase diffusion effect of light at 1.3 μm in standard telecommunication fibres are low and small, respectively. The audio-band frequency squeezed light at 1.34 μm can be utilized to realize quantum precision measurement, such as quantum-enhanced sensing in the low-frequency range, laser interferometer for gravitational wave detection. In this paper, CV audio-band frequency vacuum squeezed states at 1.3 μm are experimentally generated by using a type-I degenerate optical parametric oscillator (DOPO) below the threshold. A home-made continuous-wave single-frequency dual-wavelength (671 nm and 1.34 μm) Nd:YVO4/LBO laser is used as a pump source for DOPO based on a type-I quasi-phase-matched periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal. Mode cleaners with a finesse of 400 and linewidth of 0.75 MHz are used to filter the noise of lasers at 671 nm and 1.34 μm, respectively. The intensity noises of the two lasers reach a shot noise level for analysis frequencies higher than 1.0 MHz and their phase noises reach shot noise level for analysis frequencies higher than 1.3 MHz, respectively. The low noise single-frequency 671 nm laser is utilized as a pump of the DOPO. The threshold power of the DOPO is 450 mW. In order to detect the audio-band frequency vacuum squeezed states, the power of local oscillator of a homodyne detector system is optimized to 60 μupW. Furthermore, the effect of common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of detectors is discussed in detecting the audio-band frequency vacuum squeezed states. Improvement of CMRR of detectors is a good way to detect the audio-band frequency vacuum squeezed states effectively. When the phase matching temperature of PPKTP crystal is controlled at 53℃ by using a home-made temperature controller and the pump power is 95 mW, the vacuum squeezed states are generated at analysis frequency ranging from 8-100 kHz. A maximum measured squeeze of 5.0 dB is obtained at analysis frequency of 36 kHz. A 3.0 dB squeezed light is obtained at an audio-band frequency of 8 kHz.
We report the generation of a stable continuous-wave low-frequency squeezed vacuum field with a squeezing level of 7.4+/-0.1 dB at 1064 nm, the wavelength at which laser-interferometric gravitational wave (GW) detectors operate, using periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) in a subthreshold optical parametric oscillator. The squeezing was observed in a broad band of frequencies above 700 Hz where the sensitivity of the currently operational GW detectors is limited by shot noise. PPKTP has the advantages of higher nonlinearity, smaller pump-induced seed absorption, and wider temperature tuning range than alternative nonlinear materials such as MgO-doped or periodically poled LiNbO3, and is, therefore, an excellent material for generation of squeezed vacuum fields for application to laser interferometers for GW detection.
We present the generation and detection of squeezed light in the 2 μm wavelength region. This experiment is a crucial step in realizing the quantum noise reduction techniques that will be required for future generations of gravitational-wave detectors. Squeezed vacuum is generated via degenerate optical parametric oscillation from a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal, in a dual resonant cavity. The experiment uses a frequency stabilized 1984 nm thulium fiber laser, and squeezing is detected using balanced homodyne detection with extended InGaAs photodiodes. We have measured 4.0±0.1 dB of squeezing and 10.5±0.5 dB of antisqueezing relative to the shot noise level in the audio frequency band, limited by photodiode quantum efficiency. The inferred squeezing level directly after the optical parametric oscillator, after accounting for known losses and phase noise, is 10.7 dB.
The field of squeezed state is an important quantum resource in the study of quantum optics. In the application of quantum information, the spectrum bandwidth of the squeezed light field is an important index to limit the information transmission capacity. Currently, the optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is one of the most efficient ways to generate high squeezed non-classical optical fields. In this paper, the degenerate singly-resonant and doubly-resonant OPO structures are introduced. Both OPOs are composed of concave mirrors and periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystals (PPKTP). The length of PPKTP crystal is 10 mm. The curvature radius of the curved surface is 12 mm, and it has high reflectivity at 1550 nm and 775 nm. The plane surface is coated with anti-reflection coating. The air gap length is 21 mm. The concave mirror is an output coupling mirror, and its radius of curvature is 25 mm. In the singly-resonant OPO, only the signal light resonates in the cavity, and the pump light passes through the nonlinear crystal twice and then outputs out of the cavity. The reflectivity of OPO output coupling mirror to the wavelength of 1550 nm is 88%. The linewidth of the corresponding fundamental frequency wave is 77.4 MHz. For doubly-resonant OPO, both the signal light and the pump light resonate simultaneously in the cavity. The reflectivity of OPO output coupling mirror to 1550 nm and 775 nm is 85% and 97.5%, respectively. The linewidth of the corresponding fundamental frequency wave and harmonic is 97.1 MHz and 15.6 MHz, respectively. Then the threshold of OPO is calculated. The threshold pump power of OPO increases with signal light transmittance increasing, but the threshold value of doubly-resonant OPO is obviously smaller than that of singly-resonant OPO. After that, the variation of the squeezing bandwidth of the squeezed light field generated by OPO with the transmittance of the signal is analyzed. Finally, we complete the design of quantum squeezer with low threshold (18 mW), broadband (84.2 MHz) and high stability (the standard deviation of locking baseline is 0.32 MHz) experimentally. The results show that compared with the singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator, the doubly-resonant cavity has the characteristics of low threshold and high stability, which is more suitable for the preparation and practical application of broadband squeezed light field.
Generation of squeezed state at telecommunication wavelength has been recently a very interesting issue due to the lowest optical power attenuation of light at a wavelength of 1550 nm in a standard telecommunication fiber. The low-frequency vacuum squeezed state at 1550 nm in combination with fiber based interferometer offers the possibility to implement quantum precision measurement beyond standard quantum limit (SQL). In this paper, we experimentally realize a quantum-enhanced fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (FMZI) for measuring the low-frequency phase modulation signal by using low-frequency vacuum squeezing at 1550 nm. Firstly, the low-frequency vacuum squeezed state at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm is generated by using a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (DOPO). The DOPO is a semi-monolithic construction based on a type I periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal and a concave mirror. The pump threshold of DOPO is 270 mW. When the pump power is 120 mW that is below the pump threshold of DOPO and the temperature of PPKTP is controlled at 34.8℃, a vacuum squeezing of 3 dB is generated at an analysis frequency range from 10 kHz to 500 kHz. The quadrature phase vacuum squeezing is obtained by locking the squeezed quadrature angle through using a coherent control scheme, in which two acousto-optic modulators are used to shift the frequency and produce the auxiliary beam acting as a coherent control field. Based on the constructed FMZI, a quantum-enhanced FMZI is realized by injecting the generated low-frequency vacuum squeezed state at 1550 nm into the vacuum channel of FMZI. The relative phase between two injected light fields is locked at π by using the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) locking technology, and the relative phase between light fields of its arms in FMZI is also locked at π/2 by using the PDH locking technology. When a phase modulation signal at the frequency of 500 kHz is loaded in the signal arm of FMZI, the noise power spectrum of the output from FMZI is measured by a balance homodyne detect system. A 2 dB quantum improvement beyond shot-noise-level at the frequency of 500 kHz is obtained experimentally by using the quantum-enhanced FMZI. The experimental results demonstrate a potential application in quantum precision measurement beyond the SQL based on fiber sensor technique.