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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Nonclassical effects in a mode-locked optical parametric oscillator

Robert M. Shelby, M. D. Levenson, Stephen H. Perlmutter

Published Jan 1, 1988• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have constructed a mode-locked optical parametric oscillator (OPO), synchronously pumped by the second harmonic of a continuously mode-locked Nd:YAG laser and based on type II phase matching in a KTP crystal. The two subharmonics (signal and idler waves) are nearly degenerate in frequency but are distinct orthogonal polarization states, and the oscillator is thus a nondegenerate OPO. Above threshold, the intensities of the signal and idler output beams should be highly correlated, as recently demonstrated for a similar single-frequency OPO.1 Ideally, the quantum noise on the corresponding photocurrent difference signal is completely suppressed for frequencies that are small compared to the OPO cavity bandwidth. Since this configuration produces intense light beams with potentially very good noise suppression, it is an important prototype for possible applications, e.g., to spectroscopy. Initial results with our OPO show an excess uncorrelated polarization noise, possibly due to depolarized light scattering in the KTP crystal. When the OPO cavity is stabilized with the signal and idler degenerate in frequency, they can be mixed to form a superposition by manipulating their polarization. When the oscillator is pumped below threshold, a pulsed squeezed vacuum state is produced in two such mixtures.2 When the polarizations are mixed inside the OPO cavity by a Faraday rotator, the backaction evasion necessary for a quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement of one of the field quadratures of an externally injected beam is obtained.3 The pulsed local oscillator used in observing the squeezing or QND effects is derived from the fundamental output of the pump laser. Progress in implementing these experiments with our mode-locked OPO is described as well as possible applications to time-domain measurements with noise below the shot-noise limit.

DOI
10.1364/oam.1988.tua4

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We have constructed a mode-locked optical parametric oscillator (OPO), synchronously pumped by the second harmonic of a continuously mode-locked Nd:YAG laser and based on type II phase matching in a KTP crystal. The two subharmonics (signal and idler waves) are nearly degenerate in frequency but are distinct orthogonal polarization states, and the oscillator is thus a nondegenerate OPO. Above threshold, the intensities of the signal and idler output beams should be highly correlated, as recently demonstrated for a similar single-frequency OPO.1 Ideally, the quantum noise on the corresponding photocurrent difference signal is completely suppressed for frequencies that are small compared to the OPO cavity bandwidth. Since this configuration produces intense light beams with potentially very good noise suppression, it is an important prototype for possible applications, e.g., to spectroscopy. Initial results with our OPO show an excess uncorrelated polarization noise, possibly due to depolarized light scattering in the KTP crystal. When the OPO cavity is stabilized with the signal and idler degenerate in frequency, they can be mixed to form a superposition by manipulating their polarization. When the oscillator is pumped below threshold, a pulsed squeezed vacuum state is produced in two such mixtures.2 When the polarizations are mixed inside the OPO cavity by a Faraday rotator, the backaction evasion necessary for a quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement of one of the field quadratures of an externally injected beam is obtained.3 The pulsed local oscillator used in observing the squeezing or QND effects is derived from the fundamental output of the pump laser. Progress in implementing these experiments with our mode-locked OPO is described as well as possible applications to time-domain measurements with noise below the shot-noise limit.
As important members of nonclassical states of light, squeezed states and entangled states are basic resources for realizing quantum measurements and constructing quantum information networks. We experimentally demonstrate that the two types of nonclassical optical states can be generated from an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) involving a periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal with a domain-inversion period of 51.7 μm, by changing the polarization of the pump laser. When a vertically polarized 671 nm laser is used to pump the OPO, the intra-cavity frequency-down-conversion with type-0 quasi-phase matching is realized and the output optical beam is a quadrature amplitude squeezed state of light at the wavelength of 1342 nm with the fluctuation of quadrature component of 3.17 dB below the quantum noise limit (QNL). If the pump laser is horizontally polarized, the condition of the type-II quasi-phase matching is satisfied and the output optical beam becomes Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled state of light with correlation variances of both quadrature amplitude-sum and quadrature phase-difference of 2.2 dB below the corresponding QNL.
A cw optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operated above threshold is of particular interest in current squeezing experiments. Quadrature squeezing in the signal and idler modes and in the pump mode is predicted. Intensity squeezing in the difference intensity of the signal and idler is predicted and has recently been observed.1 We have built a doubly resonant cw OPO with a magnesium oxide- doped lithium niobate crystal that is single-pass-pumped with the 530.9-nm line of a kryptonion laser. Mode hopping instability near degeneracy puts stringent requirements on the frequency stability of the pump laser and the mechanical stability of the OPO cavity. We have oberved such instability near degeneracy and determined the stability requirements for this OPO. Stable operation can be obtained as the OPO is operated away from degeneracy but at a higher threshold. Classically the single-pass pump output is predicted to be clamped at the threshold value so that the OPO in this configuration acts as a pump power limiter. Quantum mechanically, we have found that the pump intensity noise is enhanced. Measurements on the pump intensity noise spectrum in this particular configuration have been made and compared to our theoretical predictions.
We present a review of the Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO), describing its operation and the quantum correlation between the light beams generated by this oscillator. We show the construction of an OPO using a Potassium Titanyl Phosphate crystal (KTP), pumped by a frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser, and discuss the stability of the system and related thermal effects. We have measured the quantum correlation of signal and idler beams in a transient regime, obtaining a noise correlation level 39 % below the shot noise level.
The nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier (OPA) has many uses for investigating quantum fluctuations of light. Among them are EPR-type quadrature-phase correlations,1 QND measurement,2 and phase-sensitive quantum amplification.3 To study these problems, a reliable high-gain low-loss optical parametric amplifier (OPA) is crucial. Although OPAs operated at 1064 nm with KTP crystals pumped by a frequency doubled YAG laser exist,1 their performance is compromised because of problems with beam walk-off and polarization mixing for pairs of critically phase-matched KTP crystals. To avoid such problems, we have constructed a different nondegenerate OPA, which is operated at 1080 nm and consists of a single KTP crystal with type II noncritical phase matching. The pump beam at 540 nm for the amplifier is obtained from intracavity frequency doubling of a single-mode Nd: YAP laser with a similar KTP crystal as in the OPA.
We have carried out a linearized quantum analysis of the steady-state operation of an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) without cavity detunings; our analysis emphasizes the effects of pump quantum noise and pump excess noise. We show that pump excess noise reduces the observable signal/idler intensity correlation at low frequencies only in the presence of a cavity-loss mismatch between these subharmonic waves. This effect is so strong that the combination of pump excess noise and cavity-loss mismatch explains the rapid low-frequency noise increase well above the shot-noise level that has been seen in recent signal/idler correlation measurements. Moreover, the critical dependence of intensity correlation on cavity-loss mismatch opens a new possibility for ultrasensitive intracavity absorption spectroscopy. Specifically, sinusoidal amplitude modulation of the OPO pump beam with lock-in amplification of the signal/idler photocurrent affords a sensitive probe of subharmonic cavity-loss mismatch. Although this robust measurement capability exploits the strong intracavity correlation between the signal and idler waves, it does not require that nonclassical correlation be externally observable, nor is it limited to near-threshold OPO operation.