We report the generation of squeezed light at 1550 nm, as well as the corresponding degradation analyses, from a fiber-based periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide chip. As an optical parametric amplifier (OPA), the highest squeezing level reaches over -3.0 dB. The performance of this on-chip squeezer is analyzed with the help of machine-learning quantum state tomography, to estimate the optical loss and phase noise, as well as the purity of the generated squeezed states at different pump powers. For quantum integrated optical circuits, our results provides a systematic characterization on the quantum light sources in continues variables.
We report detection of 10.1 ± 0.2-dB squeezed light from a broadband periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Based on our previous report, where a similar PPLN waveguide shows 8.3-dB squeezing [T. Kashiwazaki et al ., Appl. Phys. Lett. 122 , 234003 ( 2023 ) 10.1063/5.0144385 ], we reduce phase fluctuations and overall optical losses in the measurement system. In particular, we introduce a phase detection technique that does not require tapping a part of the squeezed light to get a phase locking signal. We use a phase-detection OPA seeded by a tapped probe and pump light before a squeezer OPA. This configuration breaks the conventional trade-off between generating a phase-locking signal with a high signal-to-noise ratio and suppressing the degradation of the squeezing level caused by optical tapping. With all these improvements, the phase fluctuation angle is reduced from 14 mrad to 9 mrad, and the total optical loss from 12% to 8%. Achieving more than 10 dB of squeezing by the broadband waveguide OPA is a significant step towards the realization of fault-tolerant ultra-fast universal optical quantum computation.
We report generation of 10.1\pm0.2-dB squeezed light from a broadband periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Based on our previous report where a similar PPLN waveguide shows 8.3-dB squeezing [T. Kashiwazaki et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 122, 234003 (2023)], we reduce phase fluctuations and overall optical losses in the measurement system. In particular, we introduce a novel phase detection technique that does not require tapping a part of the squeezed light to get a phase locking signal. We use a phase-detection OPA seeded by a tapped probe and pump light before a squeezer OPA. This configuration breaks the conventional trade-off between generating a phase-locking signal with high-signal-to-noise ratio and suppressing degradation of squeezing level caused by optical tapping. With all these improvements, the phase fluctuation angle is reduced from 14 mrad to 9 mrad, and the total optical loss from 12\% to 8\%. Achieving more than 10 dB of squeezing by the broadband waveguide OPA is a significant step towards realization of fault-tolerant ultra-fast universal optical quantum computation.
Quantum noise limits the sensitivity of optical measurements, but squeezed states of light enable quantum-enhanced metrology, sensing, and information processing. Most on-chip squeezed-light sources rely on Kerr (
χ(3)) nonlinearities, remain limited by pump power and excess loss constraints. Quadratic (
χ(2)) platforms instead provide stronger parametric interactions, lower pump power requirements, and greater spectral engineering flexibility. Here, we demonstrate strong, broadband squeezed-light generation on a thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic chip using a dual-resonant optical parametric amplifier implemented in a single periodically poled LN (PPLN) microresonator. Near-full-depth domain inversion is achieved simultaneously with highly over-coupled resonances, exhibiting escape efficiencies exceeding 90% and intrinsic quality factors above 2.5 million in a 0.6 mm
2 X-cut TF-PPLN resonator, enabling efficient squeezing at 1587 nm when pumped at 793.5 nm. Operating in the continuous-wave regime, we directly measure -0.81 dB of squeezing below the shot-noise limit with a pump power of 27 mW, together with +4.29 dB of anti-squeezing. From these measurements, we infer an on-chip squeezing level of -7.52 dB
± 0.22 dB (95% confidence interval: [-7.96,-7.10] dB), and an on-chip anti-squeezing level of +9.62 dB
± 0.25 dB. We demonstrate single-mode squeezing at degeneracy with a squeezed-light spectrum exceeding 10.3 THz. This work reports the highest squeezing ratio among integrated
χ(2) cavity platforms and the first quasi-phase matched, fully resonant
χ(2) cavity squeezer on chip, establishing a scalable route to fully integrated power-efficient squeezed-light sources for quantum-enhanced sensing and metrology.
Abstract Quantum noise limits the sensitivity of optical measurements, but squeezed states of light enable quantum-enhanced metrology, sensing, and information processing. Most on-chip squeezed-light sources rely on Kerr (χ(3)) nonlinearities, remain limited by pump power and excess loss constraints. Quadratic (χ(2)) platforms instead provide stronger parametric interactions, lower pump power requirements, and greater spectral engineering flexibility. Here, we demonstrate strong, broadband squeezed-light generation on a thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic chip using a dual-resonant optical parametric amplifier implemented in a single periodically poled LN (PPLN) microresonator. Near-full-depth domain inversion is achieved simultaneously with highly over-coupled resonances, exhibiting escape efficiencies exceeding 90% and intrinsic quality factors above 2.5 million in a 0.6mm2 X-cut TF-PPLN resonator, enabling efficient squeezing at 1587nm when pumped at 793.5 nm. Operating in the continuous-wave regime, we directly measure −0.81 dB of squeezing below the shot-noise limit with a pump power of 27mW, together with +4.29 dB of anti-squeezing. From these measurements, we infer an on-chip squeezing level of −7.52 dB±0.22 dB (95% confidence interval: [−7.96,−7.10] dB), and an on-chip anti-squeezing level of +9.62 dB±0.25 dB . We demonstrate single-mode squeezing at degeneracy with a squeezed-light spectrum exceeding 10.3 THz. This work reports the highest squeezing ratio among integrated χ(2) cavity platforms and the first quasi-phase matched, fully resonant χ(2) cavity squeezer on chip, establishing a scalable route to fully integrated power-efficient squeezed-light sources for quantum-enhanced sensing and metrology.
Squeezed states of light play a key role in quantum-enhanced sensing and continuous-variable quantum information processing. Realizing integrated squeezed light sources is crucial for developing compact and scalable photonic quantum systems. In this work, we demonstrate on-chip broadband vacuum squeezing at telecommunication wavelengths on the thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. Our device integrates periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) nanophotonic waveguides with low-loss edge couplers, comprising bilayer inverse tapers and an SU-8 polymer waveguide. This configuration achieves a fiber-to-chip coupling loss of 1.4 dB and a total homodyne detection loss of 4.0 dB, enabling a measured squeezing level of 1.4 dB. Additional measurements in a more efficient PPLN waveguide (without low-loss couplers) infer an on-chip squeezing level of approximately 10 dB at a pump power of 62 mW. These results underscore the potential of TFLN platform for efficient and scalable squeezed light generation.
We demonstrate the generation of
12.1±0.2 dB squeezed light from a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide optical parametric amplifier (OPA). While single-pass OPAs offer squeezed light with THz-order bandwidths, loss from spatial mode mismatch between the squeezed light and the local oscillator (LO) previously capped the squeezing level at $\sim$10 dB [K. Hirota et al., Opt. Express 34, 7958 (2026)]. In this work, we minimize this loss by introducing a machine-learning-optimized spatial light modulator (SLM) in the path of the LO. Specifically, we employed a double-reflection configuration to increase the spatial degrees of freedom, and directly used the measured squeezing level as the optimization's objective function.