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Laser & Photonics Review

Sub‐Shot‐Noise Laser Phase Stabilization via Cavity‐Coupled Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

Nanjing Jiao, Ruixin Li, Bingnan An, Junyang Liu, Shaoping Shi, Lirong Chen, Yajun Wang, Yaohui Zheng

Published Aug 8, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

ABSTRACT Laser phase noise fundamentally limits precision across modern optics applications. Existing stabilization protocols suffer a fundamental trade‐off: they are constrained by either shot noise or technical noise, and none simultaneously eliminate amplitude noise while preserving quantum enhancement. We overcome this limitation by injecting squeezed vacuum into a cavity‐coupled Mach–Zehnder interferometer, thereby realizing sub‐shot‐noise phase stabilization with intrinsic immunity to amplitude noise—enabled by the high common‐mode rejection ratio of balanced detection. With –11 dB squeezing, we achieve 6.2 dB quantum‐enhanced suppression at 30 kHz over 5–200 kHz. This architecture provides a practical path to quantum‐compatible feedback for next‐generation ultra‐stable lasers.

DOI
10.1002/lpor.71684

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ABSTRACT Laser phase noise fundamentally limits precision across modern optics applications. Existing stabilization protocols suffer a fundamental trade‐off: they are constrained by either shot noise or technical noise, and none simultaneously eliminate amplitude noise while preserving quantum enhancement. We overcome this limitation by injecting squeezed vacuum into a cavity‐coupled Mach–Zehnder interferometer, thereby realizing sub‐shot‐noise phase stabilization with intrinsic immunity to amplitude noise—enabled by the high common‐mode rejection ratio of balanced detection. With –11 dB squeezing, we achieve 6.2 dB quantum‐enhanced suppression at 30 kHz over 5–200 kHz. This architecture provides a practical path to quantum‐compatible feedback for next‐generation ultra‐stable lasers.
The direct realization of a quantum-enhanced phase noise filter has remained a major challenge. Conventional techniques are not only plagued by substantial technical noise but also fundamentally constrained by inherent quantum penalty, precluding their direct application in quantum-enhanced noise filtering. This work has realized a practical approach to the first, to our knowledge, quantum-enhanced laser phase noise filter by confronting the key challenges that degrade phase noise extraction and quantum enhancement, specifically the technical noises in the laser’s amplitude and phase. Our strategy employs a detuned cavity to direct optical readout of phase noise combined with a hybrid stabilization scheme to suppress both amplitude and phase noises simultaneously. This allows us to circumvent the limitations imposed by quantum noise penalty and effectively enable quantum enhancement via squeezed vacuum injection. Experimentally, we have achieved up to 5 dB of quantum-enhanced phase noise suppression across Fourier frequencies ranging from 5 to 60 kHz. This scheme represents more than just a proof-of-principle—it unlocks the potential of squeezed-enhanced laser phase noise suppression for a broad spectrum of applications.
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 suppression of laser excess noise using a cascaded imbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer with fiber optic components was proposed and demonstrated in the experiment.By developing an automatic phase control system,the phase of the fiber interferometer with a large path imbalance(127m)can be stabilized in a long term,and the laser excess noise around 800 kHz and its integer multiples can be efficiently suppressed by more than 45 dB.The effective frequency bands of the noise filter can be controlled by adjusting the arm-length difference of the interferometer.The approach provides an effective solution for achieving compact and cost-effective laser noise reduction,and can be applied directly to the quantum optomechanical system where shot-noise-limited laser can be required.
This research focuses on advanced noise suppression technologies for high-precision measurement systems, particularly addressing the limitations of classical noise reducing approaches. The noise level of laser sources is a crucial factor that directly affects the measurement sensitivity in applications such as gravitational wave detection and biomedical imaging. Classical feedback control technologies are effective but often encounter a bottleneck resulting from the classical noise suppression limits. To cope with these challenges, a novel method integrating quantum squeezed light with classical feedback control systems to reduce intensity noise is proposed in this work. By employing an amplitude-squeezed light field, a quantum-enhanced feedback control model is developed, thereby theoretically examining the influence of both the feedback loop gain and the degree of squeezing on the noise suppression performance. The results show that the injection of squeezed light significantly reduces the intensity noise, approaching the shot noise limit (SNL), thereby improving the system sensitivity beyond the classical noise reduction boundaries. Specifically, –10 dB squeezed state injection into the feedback system yields an additional noise suppression of approximately 8.97 dB, exceeding what is achievable using classical feedback alone. This demonstrates that the potential of the proposed method can enhance measurement precision close to the quantum noise limits without increasing the laser power. The analysis highlights the asymmetric noise suppression effects between the inner feedback loop and outer feedback loop. Although the outer loop benefits significantly from the squeezed light injection and achieves noise levels that are unattainable by classical feedback methods, the inner loop shows relatively minor improvements. This asymmetry is attributed to the inherent characteristics of quantum squeezing and the limitations of the feedback loop design. Further investigation into the individual noise components reveals that the primary contributors to the intensity noise include input noise, photodetector noise, and beam splitter-induced vacuum fluctuations. The injection of squeezed light effectively mitigates these vacuum fluctuations, which are typically a major noise source in high-precision laser systems. Theoretical research results show that the use of squeezed light in feedback control systems can effectively enhance noise suppression, equivalent to a nine fold increase in detected optical power, without the physical drawbacks of increasing laser power such as thermal noise. In conclusion, this study provides a theoretical validation of combining quantum squeezed states with classical feedback control to exceed classical noise suppression limits. The integration of a –10 dB squeezed state demonstrates a significant noise reduction, showing that this hybrid approach could revolutionize noise management in precision measurement applications. The results pave the way for further exploring quantum-enhanced control technologies in fields such as gravitational wave detection, quantum communication, and advanced optical sensing, providing a pathway for improving sensitivity and noise suppression without increasing additional power requirements.
We theoretically study the phase estimation based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with a two-mode squeezed coherent state. By maximizing the quantum Fisher information, we find that the quantum Cramér-Rao bounds (QCRB) can reach sub-Heisenberg limit under the phase-matched condition. The optimal phase sensitivity can reach the sub-shot noise limit (SNL) and approach the QCRB by employing the intensity difference detection. Meanwhile, compared with the MZI fed with a coherent plus a single-mode squeezed vacuum state, this scheme can have better performance by adjusting the squeezing parameter and the mean photon number. With the same parameter, our scheme shows more sensitive phase measurement than the SU(1,1) interferometer with a coherent plus a vacuum state. We also show that the phase sensitivity of our proposal can still reach the SNL when the loss of the photon is 36%. This scheme can provide potential applications in optical sensors.