Stable low-frequency squeezed vacuum states at a wavelength of 1550 nm were generated. By controlling the squeezing angle of the squeezed vacuum states, two types of low-frequency quadrature-phase squeezed vacuum states and quadrature-amplitude squeezed vacuum states were obtained using one setup respectively. A quantum-enhanced fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer (FMZI) was demonstrated for low-frequency phase measurement using the generated quadrature-phase squeezed vacuum states that were injected. When phase modulation was measured with the quantum-enhanced FMZI, there were above 3 dB quantum improvements beyond the shot-noise limit (SNL) from 40 kHz to 200 kHz, and 2.3 dB quantum improvement beyond the SNL at 20 kHz was obtained. The generated quadrature-amplitude squeezed vacuum state was applied to perform low-frequency amplitude modulation measurement for sensitivity beyond the SNL based on optical fiber construction. There were about 2 dB quantum improvements beyond the SNL from 60 kHz to 200 kHz. The current scheme proves that quantum-enhanced fiber-based sensors are feasible and have potential applications in high-precision measurements based on fiber, particularly in the low-frequency range.
Stable low-frequency squeezed vacuum states at a wavelength of 1550 nm were generated. By controlling the squeezing angle of the squeezed vacuum states, two types of low-frequency quadrature-phase squeezed vacuum states and quadrature-amplitude squeezed vacuum states were obtained using one setup respectively. A quantum-enhanced fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer (FMZI) was demonstrated for low-frequency phase measurement using the generated quadrature-phase squeezed vacuum states that were injected. When phase modulation was measured with the quantum-enhanced FMZI, there were above 3 dB quantum improvements beyond the shot-noise limit (SNL) from 40 kHz to 200 kHz, and 2.3 dB quantum improvement beyond the SNL at 20 kHz was obtained. The generated quadrature-amplitude squeezed vacuum state was applied to perform low-frequency amplitude modulation measurement for sensitivity beyond the SNL based on optical fiber construction. There were about 2 dB quantum improvements beyond the SNL from 60 kHz to 200 kHz. The current scheme proves that quantum-enhanced fiber-based sensors are feasible and have potential applications in high-precision measurements based on fiber, particularly in the low-frequency range.
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.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a quantum-enhanced fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer for low-frequency phase measurement beyond the shot-noise limit using a high-frequency squeezing technique. The local oscillator field is amplitude-modulated in the MHz range and is then demodulated to avoid the technical noise that occurs at low frequencies. After measurement of the phase noise at a frequency of tens of kHz, an improvement of ∼2 dB relative to the shot-noise level is achieved. Additionally, the amplitude modulation depth has no significant effect on the phase noise improvement of the interferometer when deployed in our experimental configuration. The current scheme introduces a quantum technique into the fiber-based measurements, particularly for the low frequency range, and this scheme has potential applications in the high-precision fiber sensing of temperature, strain, and various other parameters.
The injection of squeezed light can be used to improve the sensitivity of an interferometer beyond the limit imposed by the zero-point fluctuation of the electromagnetic field. Here, we report on the realization of such a quantum-enhanced interferometer with a fiber-based Sagnac topology. Continuous wave squeezed states at 1550 nm with a noise reduction of 6.4 dB below shot noise were produced by type I optical parametric amplification and subsequently injected into the dark port of the interferometer. A reduction of the interferometer shot noise by 4.5 dB was observed, and the enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio for a phase modulation signal generated within the interferometer could be demonstrated. We achieved a 95% fiber transmission for the squeezed states, which suggests that corresponding fiber-based quantum metrology and communication systems are feasible.
According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the precision of any physical quantity measurement is limited by quantum fluctuation in general, which leads to the so-called standard quantum limit (SQL). The SQL can be beaten by using squeezed light, hence enhancing the measurement accuracy. Squeezed light is a typical nonclassical light, it exhibits reduced noise in one quadrature component. Since Caves proposed the scheme of phase measurement enhancement with squeezing, squeezed light has been used to enhance measurement precision in many areas. This review focuses on the following four kinds of precision measurements based on squeezed light: the measurements of relative phase, small lateral displacement and tilt, magnetic field, and clock synchronization. For all of these measurements, vacuum squeezing has been used to enhance measurement precision, while the types of squeezing (squeezing angle, transverse mode, polarization etc.) are different. For phase measurement, quadrature squeezing is injected into the conventionally unused input port of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) or Michelson interferometer (MI). For displacement or tilt measurement, a vacuum squeezing beam of a special transverse mode is coupled into an intense coherent beam, yielding a spatial-squeezed light whose transverse position or tilt angle noise is lower than that of a classical light beam. Based on the Faraday effect of polarization rotation, the magnetic field can be detected precisely. The precision can be increased further by using the polarization squeezing. The polarization squeezing can be generated by coupling two orthogonal polarized beams together, a coherent beam and a vacuum squeezed beam. Various polarization squeezing can be illustrated on the Poincaré sphere. Finally, in the clock synchronization based on the optical frequency comb, squeezed light can be used to enhance the time measurement precision. A theoretical scheme with multimode squeezing of supermode (a kind of mode describing the frequency mode of a pulse laser beam) is introduced. The squeezing has extensively been applied into the quantum precision measurements such as gravitational wave detection as well as biological measurement and will play a more important role in the near future.
Quantum metrology harnesses nonclassical resources including squeezed states and quantum entanglement to overcome fundamental limitations imposed by the shot-noise limit (SNL). While conventional optical interferometers for phase detection typically operate in the MHz-frequency regime due to technical noise constraints at lower frequencies, numerous practical applications demand operation in the kHz regime or below. Here, we present a truncated SU(1,1) interferometric configuration that achieves enhanced phase sensitivity in the low-frequency (kHz) domain by exploiting quantum entanglement generated through two-mode squeezed states. Our approach incorporates quantum sideband control to achieve quantum correlations across multiple low-frequency bands while simultaneously suppressing technical noise. Through precise locking of optimal phase, we demonstrate a significant improvement in signal-to-noise ratio within the kHz range, with phase sensitivity surpassing the SNL by 2.0 ± 0.2 dB. These experimental results provide crucial validation for extending entanglement-enhanced optical interferometry into low-frequency metrological applications and establish novel methodologies for optical modulation and sideband-based quantum information processing and quantum sensing protocols.
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.