Abstract A novel scheme to realize the whole class of quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements of a field quadrature is suggested. The setup requires linear optical components and squeezers, and allows optimal QND measurements of quadratures, which minimize the information gain versus state disturbance trade‐off.
We suggest an interferometric scheme assisted by squeezing and linear feedback to realize the whole class of field-quadrature quantum nondemolition measurements, from Von Neumann projective measurement to a fully nondestructive noninformative one. In our setup, the signal under investigation is mixed with a squeezed probe in an interferometer and, at the output, one of the two modes is revealed through homodyne detection. The second beam is then amplitude-modulated according to the outcome of the measurement, and finally squeezed according to the transmittivity of the interferometer. Using strongly squeezed or antisqueezed probes respectively, one achieves either a projective measurement, i.e., homodyne statistics arbitrarily close to the intrinsic quadrature distribution of the signal, and conditional outputs approaching the corresponding eigenstates, or a fully nondestructive one, characterized by an almost uniform homodyne statistics, and by an output state arbitrarily close to the input signal. By varying the squeezing between these two extremes, or simply by tuning the internal phase shift of the interferometer, the whole set of intermediate cases may also be obtained. In particular, an optimal quantum nondemolition measurement of quadrature may be achieved, which minimizes the information gain versus state disturbance tradeoff.
We analyze schemes for performing quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements in optical cavities. We consider three schemes: (1) measurement of a quadrature phase amplitude using a parametric process, (2) measurement of a quadrature phase amplitude using the optical Kerr effect in a nonlinear fiber, and (3) measurement of the photon number also using the Kerr effect in a fiber. We show that in the second scheme an enhancement of the QND effect may be obtained by making the cavity finesse for the signal larger than that for the probe.
Continuous quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements of the amplitude quadrature of a 1064 nm wave are performed with a monolithic dual-port degenerate optical parametric amplifier (OPA). The quality of the measurement is limited in part by the quantum fluctuations carried by the vacuum meter input wave. Improved QND measurements are realized by injecting 3.4 dB amplitude-squeezed light into the meter input port of the OPA. This achieves increased squeezing and correlation of the output signal and meter waves, and both improved operation as a quantum optical tap and as a quantum state preparator. The all-solid-state system was operated for 5 h with high stability.