Two types of quantum-mechanical measurement noise - the photon-counting error and the radiation-pressure error - are analyzed for a Michelson interferometer with two general incoming squeezed states for the two input ports.
The interferometers now being developed to detect gravitational waves work by measuring the relative positions of widely separated masses. Two fundamental sources of quantum-mechanical noise determine the sensitivity of such an interferometer: (i) fluctuations in number of output photons (photon-counting error) and (ii) fluctuations in radiation pressure on the masses (radiation-pressure error). Because of the low power of available continuous-wave lasers, the sensitivity of currently planned interferometers will be limited by photon-counting error. This paper presents an analysis of the two types of quantum-mechanical noise, and it proposes a new technique---the "squeezed-state" technique---that allows one to decrease the photon-counting error while increasing the radiation-pressure error, or vice versa. The key requirement of the squeezed-state technique is that the state of the light entering the interferometer's normally unused input port must be not the vacuum, as in a standard interferometer, but rather a "squeezed state"---a state whose uncertainties in the two quadrature phases are unequal. Squeezed states can be generated by a variety of nonlinear optical processes, including degenerate parametric amplification.
In the present study we extend and generalize previous results for coherent-state and squeezed-state Michelson interferometer quantum mechanical uncertainties (or fluctuations), which are commonly referred to as `quantum noise'. The calculation of photon counting (PC) fluctuations in the squeezed-state interferometer is extended to fourth-order correlation functions used as the measured signal. We also generalize a `unified model' for treating both PC and radiation pressure fluctuations in the coherent-state interferometer, by using mathematical methods which apply to Kerr-type interactions. The results are more general than those reported previously in two ways. First, we obtain exact expressions, which lead to previous results under certain approximations. Second, we deal with cases in which the responses of the two mirrors to radiation pressure are not equal.
We discuss quantum measurements of position and repeated-measurement schemes for monitoring free-mass position to an arbitrary accuracy. Using these schemes, weak classical forces can be monitored to an arbitrary accuracy. To illustrate various measurement uncertainties and intrinsic uncertainties, we consider the case of a Michelson interferometer. In the low-intensity limit, two measurement uncertainties, photon counting error and radiation pressure error, are independent of the intrinsic uncertainty. The uses of squeezed states and number eigenstates are discussed.