Squeezed-state generation in optical bistability

Abstract

Experiments to generate squeezed states of light are described for a collection of two-level atoms within a highfinesse cavity. The investigation is conducted in a regime for which the weak-field coupling of atoms to the cavity mode produces a splitting in the normal mode structure of the atom-field system that is large compared with the atomic linewidth. Reductions in photocurrent noise of 30% (-1.55 dB) below the noise level set by the vacuum state of the field are observed in a balanced homodyne detector. A degree of squeezing of approximately 50% is inferred for the field state in the absence of propagation and detection losses. The observed spectrum of squeezing extends over a very broad range of frequencies , with the frequency of best squeezing corresponding to an offset from the optical carrier given by the normal mode splitting.

Third-order correlations in cavity quantum electrodynamics

“…The squeezing is largest at a frequency slightly below the vacuum Rabi frequency 0 , possibly because we are operating in the region of renormalized frequency response [21]. The system is driven on resonance and the amount of squeezing is rather small compared to previous realizations where the system was driven off resonance [10][11][12]. A more detailed treatment of the spectrum of squeezing in cavity QED and its relation with the correlation function h(τ ) can be found in Reiner et al [20], in particular the discussion about the positive part of the spectrum at low frequency, and its relationship with spontaneous emission.…”

“…We have managed this, using a cavity QED system as a source, where a single mode of the electromagnetic field interacts with a collection of two-state atoms [9]. The 1 Present address: Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8120, USA. source is known to emit non-classical light; this has been demonstrated in both photon correlation [3][4][5] and squeezing measurements [10][11][12]. We observe the fluctuation of the wave amplitude of light underlying these measurements [13,14] by exploiting the conditioning on a photon detection to catch the fluctuation as it occurs.…”

Time-dependent Studies of Optical Bistability in Atomic Sodium

“…A detailed study of the role of the transverse structure of the intracavity field has also been undertaken (Orozco et al 1987 b). An intrinsic dynamical instability on the upper branch has been observed , and recently, squeezed-state generation in the bistable system has been reported (Raizen et al 1987;Orozco et al 1987c). …”

Quadrature and polarization squeezing in a dispersive optical bistability model

“…One system that attracted early attention for quadrature squeezing is dispersive optical bistability [8,9,10,11,12] which consists in an optical cavity filled with a nonlinear χ (3) medium which is fed with an external (pumping) field. For appropriate values of the system parameters, the output field exhibits bistability and at the turning points of the hysteresis cycle, perfect squeezing is obtained.…”