Toward Spectral Engineering of Squeezed Light in High-Gain PDC
Friedrich Schiller University Jena（耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学）；Institute of Applied Physics, Abbe Center of Photonics（应用物理研究所，阿贝光子学中心）；Heinz Nixdorf Institute, Paderborn University（帕德博恩大学海因茨·诺伊多夫研究所）；Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Paderborn University（帕德博恩大学电气与信息技术系）；Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS), Paderborn University（帕德博恩大学光子量子系统研究所（PhoQS））；Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF（弗劳恩霍夫应用光学和精密工程研究所 IOF）
Jatin Kumar, Aleksa Krstić, Sina Saravi, Frank Setzpfandt
We investigated the spectral properties of squeezed light generated via parametric down-conversion in the high-gain regime, considering both unapodized and apodized dispersion-engineered waveguides. The gain-dependent evolution of these states is examined starting from the low-gain regime, which includes both highly correlated and nearly uncorrelated cases. For the unapodized configuration, we observe a monotonic increase in spectral purity with gain, whereas the apodized configuration exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence, initially decreasing and then recovering at higher gain. By combining Schmidt-mode analysis with a group-velocity-based interpretation, we explain why different dispersion conditions exhibit distinct gain-dependent behavior, specifically that rapid purification occurs when the pump group velocity lies between those of the signal and idler. Our study shows that the evolution of spectral purity is governed primarily by the underlying dispersion of the waveguide. These results demonstrate that dispersion engineering and parametric gain can be jointly exploited to tailor the spectral-mode structure of squeezed-light sources, enabling their optimization for a broad range of quantum applications.
In this paper we experimentally study the statistical properties of a bright squeezed vacuum state containing up to 10^13 photons per mode (10 uJ per pulse), produced via high gain parametric down conversion (PDC). The effects of bunching and superbunching of photons were observed for a single mode PDC radiation by second-order intensity correlation function measurements with analog detectors.
We study the spatial properties of high-gain parametric down-conversion (PDC). From the Hamiltonian we find the Schmidt modes, apply the Bloch-Messiah reduction, and calculate analytically the measurable quantities, such as the angular distributions of photon numbers and photon-number correlations. Our approach shows that the Schmidt modes of PDC radiation can be considered the same as for the low-gain (biphoton) case while the Schmidt eigenvalues strongly depend on the parametric gain. Its validity is confirmed by comparison with several experimental results, obtained by us and by other group…
Squeezing measurement with spectrally broadened in microstructured fiber local oscillator
Russian Quantum Center（俄罗斯量子中心）；Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology（莫斯科物理技术学院）；M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University（莫斯科国立大学）；Dianov Fiber Optics Research Center（季阿诺夫光纤研究中心）
We study distinguishing information in the context of quantum interference involving more than one parametric downconversion (PDC) source and in the context of polarization-entangled photon pairs based on PDC. We arrive at specific design criteria for two-photon sources so that when used as part of complex optical systems, such as photon-based quantum information processing schemes, distinguishing information between the photons is eliminated guaranteeing high visibility interference. We propose practical techniques which lead to suitably engineered two-photon states that can be realistically …
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) is the established standard for the practical generation of a multiplicity of quantum optical states. These include two-mode squeezed vacuum, heralded non-Gaussian states and entangled photon pairs. Detailed theoretical studies provide insight into the time-frequency (TF) structure of PDC, which are governed by the complex-valued joint spectral amplitude (JSA) function. However in experiments, the TF structure of PDC is mostly characterised by intensity measurementsthat forbid access to the important phase of the JSA. In this paper, we present an amplitude-sens…
While it has been possible to build fields in high-Q cavities with a high degree of squeezing for some years, the engineering of arbitrary squeezed states in these cavities has only recently been addressed [Phys. Rev. A 68, 061801(R) (2003)]. The present work examines the question of how to squeeze any given cavity-field state and, particularly, how to generate the squeezed displaced number state and the squeezed macroscopic quantum superposition in a high-Q cavity.
We show that two-mode squeezed vacuum-like states may be engineered in the Bohm-Madelung formalism by adequately choosing the phase of the wavefunction. The difference between our wavefunction and the one of the squeezed vacuum states is given precisely by the phase we choose.
A scheme is proposed for engineering two-mode squeezed states of two separated cold atomic clouds positioned near the surface of a superconducting stripline resonator. Based on the coherent magnetic coupling between the atomic spins and a stripline resonator mode, the desired two-mode squeezed state can be produced via precisely control on the dynamics of the system. This scheme may be used to realize scalable on-chip quantum networks with cold atoms coupling to stripline resonators.
High-gain parametric down-conversion (PDC) is a source of bright squeezed vacuum, which is a macroscopic nonclassical state of light and a promising candidate for quantum information applications. Here we study its properties, such as the intensity spectral width and the spectral width of pairwise correlations.
We present a single-pass source of broadband multimode squeezed light with potential application in quantum information and quantum metrology. The source is based on a type I parametric down-conversion (PDC) process inside a bulk nonlinear crystal in a non-collinear configuration. The generated squeezed light exhibits a spatiotemporal multimode behavior that is probed using a homodyne measurement with a local oscillator shaped both spatially and temporally. Finally we follow a covariance matrix based approach to reveal the distribution of the squeezing among several independent temporal and sp…
This theoretical proposal investigates how resonant interactions occurring when a harmonic oscillator is fed with a stream of entangled qubits allow us to stabilize squeezed states of the harmonic oscillator. We show that the properties of the squeezed state stabilized by this engineered reservoir, including the squeezing strength, can be tuned at will through the parameters of the "input" qubits, albeit in tradeoff with the convergence rate. We also discuss the influence of the type of entanglement in the input, from a pairwise case to a more widely distributed case. This paper can be read in…
We study the dissipative preparation of many-body entangled Gaussian states in bosonic lattice models which could be relevant for quantum technology applications. We assume minimal resources, represented by systems described by particle-conserving quadratic Hamiltonians, with a single localized squeezed reservoir. We show that in this way it is possible to prepare, in the steady state, the wide class of pure states which can be generated by applying a generic passive Gaussian transformation on a set of equally squeezed modes. This includes non-trivial multipartite entangled states such as clus…
The generation of quantum entanglement of macroscopic or mesoscopic bodies in mechanical motion is generally bounded by the thermal fluctuation exerted by their environments. Here we propose a scheme to establish stationary entanglement between two mechanically oscillating mirrors of a cavity. It is revealed that, by applying a broadband squeezed laser acting as a squeezed-vacuum reservoir to the cavity, a stable entanglement between the mechanical mirrors can be generated. Using the adiabatic elimination and master equation methods, we analytically find that the generated entanglement is esse…
We investigate an optical scheme to conditionally engineer quantum states using a beam splitter, homodyne detection and a squeezed vacuum as an ancillar state. This scheme is efficient in producing non-Gaussian quantum states such as squeezed single photons and superpositions of coherent states (SCSs). We show that a SCS with well defined parity and high fidelity can be generated from a Fock state of $n\leq4$, and conjecture that this can be generalized for an arbitrary $n$ Fock state. We describe our experimental demonstration of this scheme using coherent input states and measuring experimen…
We report the experimental realization of squeezed quantum states of light, tailored for new applications in quantum communication and metrology. Squeezed states in a broad Fourier frequency band down to 1 Hz has been observed for the first time. Nonclassical properties of light in such a low frequency band is required for high efficiency quantum information storage in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) media. The states observed also cover the frequency band of ultra-high precision laser interferometers for gravitational wave detection and can be used to reach the regime of quantu…
We propose a method for building a squeezed vacuum state laser with zero diffusion, which results from the introduction of the reservoir engineering technique into the laser theory. As well as the reservoir engineering, our squeezed vacuum laser demands the construction of an effective atom-field interaction. And by building an isomorphism between the cavity field operators in the effective and the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonians, we derive the equations of our effective laser directly from the conventional laser theory. Our method, which is less susceptible to errors than reservoir engineering, …
Quasi-phase-matching (QPM) has enriched the capacity of parametric down-conversion (PDC) in generating biphotons for many fundamental tests and advanced applications. However, it is not clear how the nonidealities and randomness in the QPM grating of a parametric down-converter may affect the quantum properties of the biphotons. This paper intends to provide insights into the interplay between PDC and nonideal or random QPM structures. Using a periodically poled nonlinear crystal with short periodicity, we conduct experimental and theoretical studies of PDC subject to nonideal duty cycle and r…
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) is mostly known in the low-gain (spontaneous) regime, in which the correlated photon pairs are produced. Spontaneous PDC (SPDC) plays a very important role for quantum optics as a variety of quantum states is produced via SPDC. In the high-gain case PDC leads to generation of bright states having up to hundreds mW mean power. With such states almost any nonlinear optical interaction or light-matter interaction becomes more efficient. Even being macroscopically bright, the produced states maintain nonclassical properties as, for example, the fluctuations of elec…
We study the quantum correlations induced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) of a frequency comb. We derive a theoretical method to find the output state corresponding to a pump with an arbitrary spectral profile. After applying it to the relevant example of a spectrally chirped pump, we run an optimization algorithm to numerically find the pump profiles maximizing some target functions. These include the number of independently squeezed modes and the variances of nullifiers defining cluster states used in many continuous-variable quantum information protocols. To assess the adva…
The interaction of an atomic two-level system and a squeezed vacuum leads to interesting novel effects in atomic dynamics, including line narrowing in resonance fluorescence and absorption spectra, and a suppressed (enhanced) decay of the in-phase and out-of phase component of the atomic polarization. On the experimental side these predictions have so far eluded observation, essentially due to the difficulty of embedding atoms in a 4 pi squeezed vacuum. In this paper we show how to ``engineer'' a squeezed-bath-type interaction for an effective two-level system. In the simplest example, our two…
As a genuine many-body entanglement, spin squeezing (SS) can be used to realize the highly precise measurement beyond the limit constrained by classical physics. Its generation has attracted much attention recently. It was reported that $N$ two-level systems (TLSs) located near a one-dimensional waveguide can generate a SS by using the mediation effect of the waveguide. However, a coherent driving on each TLS is used to stabilize the SS, which raises a high requirement for experiments. We here propose a scheme to generate stable SS resorting to neither the spin-spin coupling nor the coherent d…
We demonstrate how an acoustic phonon bath when coupled to a quantum dot with the help of a bichromatic laser field may effectively form a quantum squeezed reservoir. This approach allows to achieve an arbitrary degree of squeezing of the effective reservoir and it incorporates the properties of the reservoir into two parameters, which can be controlled by varying the ratio of the Rabi frequencies of the bichromatic field. It is found that for unequal Rabi frequencies, the effective reservoir may appear as a quantum squeezed field of ordinary or inverted harmonic oscillators. When the Rabi fre…
Iterative $C_Z$-gate-based protocol for squeezed Schrödinger cat state engineering
ITMO University（ITMO大学）；SMARTS-Quanttelecom LLC（SMARTS-Quanttelecom有限责任公司）；Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Technology（圣彼得堡国立技术学院）；Research and Education Center of Photonics and Optical IT, ITMO University（ITMO大学光子学与光学信息技术研究与教育中心）
Bright squeezed vacuum, a promising tool for quantum information, can be generated by high-gain parametric down-conversion. However, its frequency and angular spectra are typically quite broad, which is undesirable for applications requiring single-mode radiation. We tailor the frequency spectrum of high-gain parametric down-conversion using an SU(1,1) interferometer consisting of two nonlinear crystals with a dispersive medium separating them. The dispersive medium allows us to select a narrow band of the frequency spectrum to be exponentially amplified by high-gain parametric amplification. …
Squeezed vacuum (SV) can be obtained by an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with the quantum vacuum state at the input. We are interested in a degenerate type-I OPA based on parametric down-conversion (PDC) where due to phase matching requirements, an extraordinary polarized pump must impinge onto a birefringent crystal with a large χ(2) nonlinearity. As a consequence of the optical anisotropy of the medium, the direction of propagation of the pump wavevector does not coincide with the direction of propagation of its energy, an effect known as transverse walk-off. For certain pump sizes and …
High dimensional quantum states are of fundamental interest for quantum information processing. They give access to large Hilbert spaces and, in turn, enable the encoding of quantum information on multiple modes. One method to create such quantum states is parametric down-conversion (PDC) in waveguide arrays (WGAs) which allows for the creation of highly entangled photon-pairs in controlled, easily accessible spatial modes, with unique spectral properties. In this paper we examine both theoretically and experimentally the PDC process in a lithium niobate WGA. We measure the spatial and spectra…
We study theoretically a three-mode optomechanical system where two mechanical oscillators are independently coupled to a single cavity mode. By optimized two-tone or four-tone driving of the cavity one can prepare the mechanical oscillators in an entangled two-mode squeezed state, even if they start in a thermal state. The highly-pure, symmetric steady-state achieved allows the optimal fidelity of standard continuous-variable teleportation protocols to be achieved. In contrast to other reservoir engineering approaches to generating mechanical entanglement, only a single reservoir is required …
Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA) engineering is a significant component in the quantum two-mode squeezed radar (QTMS), to enhance, for instance, radar performance and the detection range or bandwidth. In this study, we apply quantum theory to a research domain focusing the design of QTMS radar. We apply engineered JPA (EJPA) to enhance the performance of a quantum radar (QR). We investigate the correlation between the signal and idler using and we propose strategies for maintaining entanglement at room temperature. We define the quantum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and detection range equat…
We describe a hybrid quantum system composed of a micrometer-size carbon nanotube (CNT) longitudinally coupled to a flux qubit. We demonstrate the usefulness of this device for generating high-fidelity nonclassical states of the CNT via dissipative quantum engineering. Sideband cooling of the CNT to its ground state and generating a squeezed ground state, as a mechanical analogue of the optical squeezed vacuum, are two additional examples of the dissipative quantum engineering studied here. Moreover, we show how to generate a long-lived macroscopically-distinct superposition (i.e., a Schröding…
We provide a scheme for the generation of controlled entangled number states of Bose-Einstein condensates in multiple wells, and also provide a novel method for the creation of squeezed states without severe adiabatic constraints on barrier heights. The condensate in a multiple well trap can be evolved, starting with a specific initial phase difference between the neighboring wells, to a tunable entangled state or a squeezed state. We propose a general formula for the initial phase difference between the neighboring wells that is valid for any number of wells, even and odd.
We present a scheme to conditionally engineer an optical quantum system via continuous-variable measurements. This scheme yields high-fidelity squeezed single photon and superposition of coherent states, from input single and two photon Fock states respectively. The input Fock state is interacted with an ancilla squeezed vacuum state using a beam-splitter. We transform the quantum system by post-selecting on the continuous-observable measurement outcome of the ancilla state. We experimentally demonstrate the principles of this scheme using displaced coherent states and measure experimentally f…
We show that a thermal reservoir can effectively act as a squeezed reservoir on atoms that are subject to energy-level modulation. For sufficiently fast and strong modulation, for which the rotating-wave-approximation is broken, the resulting squeezing persists at long times. These effects are analyzed by a master equation that is valid beyond the rotating wave approximation. As an example we consider a two-level-atom in a cavity with Lorentzian linewidth, subject to sinusoidal energy modulation. A possible realization of these effects is discussed for Rydberg atoms.
The robust generation of quantum states in the presence of decoherence is a primary challenge for explorations of quantum mechanics at larger scales. Using the mechanical motion of a single trapped ion, we utilize reservoir engineering to generate squeezed, coherent and displaced-squeezed states as steady states in the presence of noise. We verify the created state by generating two-state correlated spin-motion Rabi oscillations resulting in high contrast measurements. For both cooling and measurement, we use spin-oscillator couplings that provide transitions between oscillator states in an en…
An experimental demonstration of a non-classical state of a nanomechanical resonator is still an outstanding task. In this paper we show how the resonator can be cooled and driven into a squeezed state by a bichromatic microwave coupling to a charge qubit. The stationary oscillator state exhibits a reduced noise in one of the quadrature components by a factor of 0.5 - 0.2. These values are obtained for a 100 MHz resonator with a Q-value of 10$^4$ to 10$^5$ and for support temperatures of T $\approx$ 25 mK. We show that the coupling to the charge qubit can also be used to detect the squeezed st…
Vacuum fluctuation, which is the intrinsic nature of an electric field can be measured via homodyne detection. Moreover, electric field intensity fluctuation are also related to vacuum fluctuations. Squeezed vacuum and sub-Poisson light can be obtained by controlling the vacuum fluctuation using noble nonlinear interaction. Based on the squeezed vacuum by inserting a mirror on the unused part of the beam splitter was proposed in 1994, we present the mode matching method for the vacuum and light fields. Light intensity fluctuations also can be reduced by inserting a mirror on the unused part of…
We use a reservoir engineering technique based on two-tone driving to generate and stabilize a quantum squeezed state of a micron-scale mechanical oscillator in a microwave optomechanical system. Using an independent backaction evading measurement to directly quantify the squeezing, we observe $4.7\pm0.9$ dB of squeezing below the zero-point level, surpassing the 3 dB limit of standard parametric squeezing techniques. Our measurements also reveal evidence for an additional mechanical parametric effect. The interplay between this effect and the optomechanical interaction enhances the amount of …
We study an optomechanical system for the purpose of generating a nonclassical mechanical state when a mechanical oscillator is quadratically coupled to a single-mode cavity field driven by a squeezed optical field. The system corresponds to a regime where the optical dissipation dominates both the mechanical damping and the optomechanical coupling. We identify that multi-phonon processes emerge in the optomechanical system and show that a mechanical oscillator prepared in the ground state will evolve into an amplitude-squared squeezed vacuum state. The Wigner distribution of the steady state …
We propose an ideal scheme for preparing vibrational $\mathrm{SU(1,1)} \otimes \mathrm{SU(1,1)}$ states in a two-dimensional ion trap using red and blue second sideband resolved driving of two orthogonal vibrational modes. Symmetric and asymmetric driving provide two regimes to realize quantum state engineering of the vibrational modes. In one regime, we show that time evolution synthesizes so-called $\mathrm{SU}(1,1)$ Perelomov coherent states, that is separable squeezed states and their superposition too. The other regime allows engineering of lossless 50/50 $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ beam splitter st…
Photonic molecules are composed of two or more optical resonators, arranged such that some of the modes of each resonator are coupled to those of the other. Such structures have been used for emulating the behaviour of two-level systems, lasing, and on-demand optical storage and retrieval. Coupled resonators have also been used for dispersion engineering of integrated devices, enhancing their performance for nonlinear optical applications. Delicate engineering of such integrated nonlinear structures is required for developing scalable sources of non-classical light to be deployed in quantum in…
Uniaxial anisotropy in nonlinear birefringent crystals limits the efficiency of nonlinear optical interactions and breaks the spatial symmetry of light generated in the parametric down-conversion (PDC) process. Therefore, this effect is usually undesirable and must be compensated for. However, high gain may be used to overcome the destructive role of anisotropy and instead to use it for the generation of bright two-mode correlated twin-beams. In this work, we provide a rigorous theoretical description of the spatial properties of bright squeezed light in the presence of strong anisotropy. We i…
Erasing photons from bright squeezed vacuum light via above-threshold ionization
University College London（伦敦大学学院）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理前沿研究所）；University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；ICFO – Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology（ICFO-光子科学研究所，巴塞罗那科学技术研究院）；Technische Universität Wien（维也纳工业大学）；King’s College London（伦敦国王学院）
Conditional preparation is a well-established technique for quantum state engineering of light. A general trend is to increase the number of heralding detection events in such realization to reach larger photon-number states or their arbitrary superpositions. In contrast to pulsed implementations, where detections only occur within the pulse window, for continuous-wave light the temporal separation of the conditioning detections is an additional degree of freedom and a critical parameter. Based on the theoretical study by A.E.B. Nielsen and K. Molmer and on a continuous-wave two-mode squeezed …
Engineering Nonclassical States via the Dynamical Casimir Effect
Università degli Studi dell’Insubria（因苏布里亚大学）；INFN, Sezione di Milano（意大利国家核物理研究所米兰分部）；Università di Pavia（帕维亚大学）；INFN, Sezione di Pavia（意大利国家核物理研究所帕维亚分部）；Università di Catania（卡塔尼亚大学）；INFN, Sezione di Catania（意大利国家核物理研究所卡塔尼亚分部）
Squeezed light is a key quantum resource that enables quantum advantages for sensing, networking, and computing applications. The scalable generation and manipulation of squeezed light with integrated platforms are highly desired for the development of quantum technology with continuous variables. In this letter, we demonstrate squeezed light generation with thin-film lithium niobate integrated photonics. Para-metric down-conversion is realized with quasi-phase matching using ferroelectric domain engineering. With sub-wavelength mode confinement, efficient nonlinear processes can be observed w…
The ability to engineer the quantum state of traveling optical fields is a central requirement for quantum information science and technology, including quantum communication, computing and metrology. In this video article, we describe the reliable generation of non-Gaussian states, including single-photon states and coherent state superpositions, using a conditional preparation method operated on the non-classical light emitted by optical parametric oscillators. Type-I and type-II phase-matched OPOs operated below threshold, i.e. single-mode or two-mode squeezed vacuum sources, are considered…
Squeezed light has evolved into a powerful tool for quantum technology, ranging from quantum enhanced sensing and quantum state engineering based on partial post-selection techniques. The pulsed generation of squeezed light is of particular interest, as it can provide accurate time stamp and physically defined temporal mode, which are highly preferred in complex communication networks and large-scale information processing. However, the multimode feature of pulsed squeezing in conventional single-pass configuration limits the purity of the output state, negatively impacting its application in …
