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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Applying Kerr Squeezed Light to Interferometry

Nikolay A. Kalinin, Thomas Dirmeier, Arseny A. Sorokin, Elena A. Anashkina, Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto, Joel Frederick Corney, Gerd Leuchs, Alexey V. Andrianov

Published Jun 26, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

One of the most promising applications for squeezed light is interferometry beyond the shot-noise limit (SNL). To date, only squeezed light generated by parametric down-conversion has been used to improve interferometer sensitivity. Remarkable results have been achieved with this approach, including applications to large-scale gravitational wave detectors. On the other hand, there exists a potentially more robust way to generate squeezed light, that is, using the optical Kerr effect. It occurs almost for free in optical fibers and requires no phase matching. However, no interferometer sensitivity enhancement has been demonstrated so far using this method. One of the reasons for that is that the uncertainty distribution of a Kerr-squeezed state in phase space is tilted with respect to the amplitude or phase quadratures. Additional obstacles include Raman and guided acoustic wave Brillouin scattering in fibers.

DOI
10.1109/cleo/europe-eqec57999.2023.10232130

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One of the most promising applications for squeezed light is interferometry beyond the shot-noise limit (SNL). To date, only squeezed light generated by parametric down-conversion has been used to improve interferometer sensitivity. Remarkable results have been achieved with this approach, including applications to large-scale gravitational wave detectors. On the other hand, there exists a potentially more robust way to generate squeezed light, that is, using the optical Kerr effect. It occurs almost for free in optical fibers and requires no phase matching. However, no interferometer sensitivity enhancement has been demonstrated so far using this method. One of the reasons for that is that the uncertainty distribution of a Kerr-squeezed state in phase space is tilted with respect to the amplitude or phase quadratures. Additional obstacles include Raman and guided acoustic wave Brillouin scattering in fibers.
One of the prime applications of squeezed light is enhancing the sensitivity of an interferometer below the quantum shot-noise limit, but so far, no such experimental demonstration was reported when using the optical Kerr effect. In prior setups involving Kerr-squeezed light, the role of the interferometer was merely to characterize the noise pattern. The lack of such a demonstration was largely due to the cumbersome tilting of the squeezed ellipse in phase space. Here, we present the first experimental observation of phase-sensitivity enhancement in an interferometer using Kerr squeezing.
Improvements in precision beyond the limit set by the vacuum state or zero-point fluctuations of the field are reported for two optical experiments. Both experiments employ the squeezed light from an optical parametric oscillator to reduce the level of fluctuations in one of two quadrature phase amplitudes below the shot-noise level (SNL). The first experiment follows the work of Caves1 on precision interferometry with squeezed states. An increase in signal-to-noise of 2.5 dB relative to the SNL is demonstrated for the detection of phase modulation in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In the second experiment amplitude modulation is encoded on a weak signal beam with an acoustooptic modulator. For the case of a squeezed signal beam compared with a beam in a coherent state, an improvement in sensitivity of 2.5 dB is achieved for the detection of amplitude changes of the field. The observed increases in sensitivity in both experiments are currently limited by simple linear losses in propagation and detection and not by the degree of available squeezing.
The first detections of gravitational waves have opened an exciting new field of astronomy. One of the most fundamental limitations for the sensitivity of current and future interferometric gravitational-wave detectors is imposed by the quantum nature of light: Quantum vacuum fluctuations entering the interferometer through the readout port will contribute to the detection noise, at high frequencies in the form of shot noise and at low frequencies by radiation pressure noise. A promising way to reduce this quantum noise is the injection of squeezed states of light that have a lower uncertainty in one quadrature than the vacuum state. The GEO 600 gravitational-wave detector demonstrated the use of squeezed light in 2010 and it is now the first detector to routinely apply squeezing to improve its sensitivity beyond the limits set by classical quantum shot noise. This thesis details the practical aspects of long-term stable and efficient squeezed-light integration in a large-scale gravitational-wave detector. Imperfections that can limit the amount of observable non-classical noise improvement, such as optical losses and phase fluctuations, were studied in detail and methods for their mitigation were developed. Novel control schemes for the active stabilisation of the squeezed light field's phase and alignment were one main focus of the investigations. At the same time, important experience was gathered in the operation of the squeezed light source over long timescales. Over the course of the thesis work, improvements were implemented that significantly increased the performance of the squeezed-light application. Squeezing was injected with an overall duty cycle of 88%, reaching a noise reduction of up to 4.4 dB, corresponding to a 40% lowered shot-noise level. This work has firmly established the practical application of squeezing as a mature technology. The gained knowledge will directly inform the implementation of squeezed light for all future gravitational-wave detectors.
Squeezed vacuum states of light show a reduction in quantum noise along one quadrature compared to the vacuum state. This characteristic is the key to improve interferometric measurements beyond their quantum noise limitation. In particular for ground-based gravitational wave detectors [1] the application of squeezed light led to a significant sensitivity improvement of up to 6 dB. Future gravitational wave detectors, like the Einstein Telescope [2] or Cosmic Explorer [3], aim for an even higher enhancement in the range of 10 dB with the injection of squeezed states of light into the dark port of their interferometers.
A potential application of squeezed-state light is to improve the sensitivity of high-precision interferometers whose performance is generally limited by photon shot noise or photon-counting statistics. Such interferometers include passive laser gyroscopes and the very sensitive interferometers being developed to detect cosmic gravitational waves. One usually operates a high-precision interferometer in a differential mode, so that noise from the (laser) light source is in principle irrelevant. Operation in a differential mode means that there is a second, normally unused input port. Vacuum noise entering this second port is responsible for the irreducible photon shot noise at the interferometer’s output. Injecting squeezed-state light into the normally unused input port can improve the sensitivity. I discuss the use of squeezed-state light in ring interferometers, delayline Michelson interferometers, and Fabry-Perot interferometers. Included in the discussion are real degrading effects, such as losses, inefficient photodetectors, and laser noise in the presence of nonideal fringe contrast. I explore the compatibility of the squeezed-state technique with other exotic techniques for improving sensitivity, such as Drever's idea for power recycling. Sensitivity estimates for various configurations and techniques are presented.