We study experimentally parametric amplification in the continuous regime using a transverse-degenerate type-II Optical Parametric Oscillator operated below threshold. We demonstrate that this device is able to amplify either in the phase insensitive or phase sensitive way first a single mode beam, then a multimode image. Furthermore the total intensities of the amplified image projected on the signal and idler polarizations are shown to be correlated at the quantum level.
We derive analytic solutions for Heisenberg evolution under the trilinear parametric Hamiltonian which are correct to second order in the interaction strength but are valid for all pump amplitudes. The solutions allow pump depletion effects to be incorporated in the description of parametric amplification in experimentally relevant scenarios and the resulting new phenomena to be rigorously described.
We present a full operator approach to treatment of the cross-Kerr interaction combined with parametric amplification. It is shown that this problem can be exactly integrated using the method of higher-order operators. While the initial basis is infinite-dimensional, an orthogonal transformation can reduce the problem exactly into a six-dimensional basis which can be integrated conveniently.
It is demonstrated that the nature of optical parametric amplification is a quantum phenomenon. The system Lagrangian can be constructed by the path integral of coherent state. The equations of motion for photon operators are indeed the Euler-Lagrange equations of a Lagrangian. The quantum state evolution equation can also be obtained without resorting to quantum Hamiltonian or Lagrangian. Starting with classical Newton equation, quantum transition amplitude of the system can be educed by surface integral.
There is a serious flaw in the proposal [arXiv:1603.06857] for the achievement of unity efficiency in SPDC. This is a replacement due to mistakes in the table of probabilities. Numbers have been corrected.
We investigate the multiparticle quantum superposition and the persistence of multipartite entanglement of the quantum superposition generated by the quantum injected high-gain optical parametric amplification of a single photon. The physical configuration based on the optimal universal quantum cloning has been adopted to investigate how the entanglement and the quantum coherence of the system persists for large values of the nonlinear parametric gain g.
We show the possibility of noiseless amplification of an optical image in cavities containing a parametric oscillator. We consider a confocal ring cavity with plane mirrors and compare with the case of planar cavity. In the latter case the system operates with severe spatial limitations, while in the confocal case, there is the possibility of preserving the signal-to-noise ratio while amplifying uniformely the entire image.
We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate coherence phenomena in optical parametric amplification inside a cavity. The mode splitting in transmission spectra of phase-sensitive optical parametric amplifier is observed. Especially, we show a very narrow dip and peak, which are the shape of $δ$ function, appear in the transmission profile. The origin of the coherence phenomenon in this system is the interference between the harmonic pump field and the subharmonic seed field in cooperation with dissipation of the cavity.
Phase-sensitive optical parametric amplification of squeezed states helps to overcome detection loss and noise and thus increase the robustness of sub-shot-noise sensing. Because such techniques, e.g., imaging and spectroscopy, operate with multimode light, multimode amplification is required. Here we find the optimal methods for multimode phase-sensitive amplification and verify them in an experiment where a pumped second-order nonlinear crystal is seeded with a Gaussian coherent beam. Phase-sensitive amplification is obtained by tightly focusing the seed into the crystal, rather than seeding…
Stimulated emission of two photons is observed experimentally in the parametric amplification process and is compared to a three-photon interference scheme. We find that the underlying physics of stimulated emission is simply the constructive interference due to photon indistinguishability. So the observed signal enhancement upon the input of photons is a result of multi-photon interference of the input photons and the otherwise spontaneously emitted photon from the amplifier.
Nonlinear forces allow motion of a mechanical oscillator to be squeezed below the zero-point motion. Of existing methods, mechanical parametric amplification is relatively accessible, but previously thought to be limited to 3dB of squeezing in the steady state. We consider the effect of applying continuous weak measurement and feedback to this system. If the parametric drive is optimally detuned from resonance, correlations between the quadratures of motion allow unlimited steady-state squeezing. Compared to back-action evasion, we demonstrate that the measurement strength, temperature and eff…
In the Schroedinger picture, we find explicit solutions for two models of degenerate parametric oscillators in the case of multiparameter squeezed input photons. The corresponding photon statistics and Wigner's function are also derived in coordinate representation. Their time evolution is investigated in detail. The unitary transformation is briefly discussed too.
Polarization squeezing is shown to occur in non-degenerate parametric amplification of coherent light and the degree of squeezing at interaction time $T$ can be as large as $1-e^{-2T}$. This gives $86.4\%$ polarization squeezing for $T=1$ and $98.2\%$ for $T=2$. One simple case when this occurs is on taking initially plane polarized light having equal amplitudes in the two modes that finally has equal intensities of two circular polarizations. This suggest the experimental settings of parameters to achieve this extent of polarization squeezing in coherent light.
Breaking the symmetry in a coupled wave system can result in unusual amplification behavior. In the case of difference parametric amplification the resonant pump frequency is equal to the difference, instead of the sum, frequency of the normal modes. We show that sign reversal in the symmetry relation of parametric coupling give rise to difference parametric amplification as a dual of optical parametric amplification. For optical systems, our result can potentially be used for efficient XUV amplification.
We propose how to achieve strong phonon blockade (PB) in a hybrid spin-mechanical system in the weak-coupling regime. We demonstrate the implementation of magnetically-induced two-phonon interactions between a mechanical cantilever resonator and an embedded nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, which, combined with parametric amplification of the mechanical motion, produces significantly enlarged anharmonicity in the eigenenergy spectrum. In the weak-driving regime, we show that strong PB appears in the hybrid system along with a large mean phonon number, even in the presence of strong mechanical diss…
The Hanbury Brown Twiss (HBT) interferometer was proposed to observe intensity correlations of starlight to measure a star's angular diameter. As the intensity of light that reaches the detector from a star is very weak, one cannot usually get a workable signal-to-noise ratio. We propose an improved HBT interferometric scheme introducing optical parametric amplifiers into the system, to amplify the correlation signal, which is used to calculate the angular diameter. With the use of optical parametric amplifiers, the signal-to-noise ratio can be increased up to 400 percent.
We propose a method for the fast generation of nonclassical ground states of the Rabi model in the ultrastrong and deep-strong coupling regimes via the shortcuts-to-adiabatic (STA) dynamics. The time-dependent quantum Rabi model is simulated by applying parametric amplification to the Jaynes-Cummings model. Using experimentally feasible parametric drive, this STA protocol can generate large-size Schrödinger cat states, through a process that is 10 times faster compared to adiabatic protocols. Such fast evolution increases the robustness of our protocol against dissipation. Our method enables o…
We propose an optical scheme, employing optical parametric down-converters interlaced with nonlinear sign gates (NSGs), that completely converts an $n$-photon Fock-state pump to $n$ signal-idler photon pairs when the down-converters' crystal lengths are chosen appropriately. The proof of this assertion relies on amplitude amplification, analogous to that employed in Grover search, applied to the full quantum dynamics of single-mode parametric down-conversion. When we require that all Grover iterations use the same crystal, and account for potential experimental limitations on crystal-length pr…
Quantum tomography is the standard method of reconstructing the Wigner function of quantum states of light by means of balanced homodyne detection. The reconstruction quality strongly depends on the photodetectors quantum efficiency and other losses in the measurement setup. In this article we analyse in detail a protocol of enhanced quantum tomography, proposed by Leonhardt and Paul in 1994, which allows one to reduce the degrading effect of detection losses. It is based on phase sensitive parametric amplification, with the phase of the amplified quadrature being scanned synchronously with th…
Noise usually has an unwelcome influence on system performance. For instance, noise inevitably affects the low-frequency mechanical freedom in optomechanical experiments. However, we investigate here the beneficial effects of thermal noise on a basic optomechanical system with parametric instability. In a regime near parametric instability, it is found that thermal noise in the mechanical freedom can sustain long-term quasi-coherent oscillations when the system would otherwise remain in the equilibrium state. In an overlapping regime of parametric instability and bistability, intermittent swit…
We study polarization squeezing of a light beam initially in the coherent state using the nonlinear interaction hamiltonian $ H=k\big(\hat a_{x}^{\dagger2}+{\hat a_{x}}^2\big)$. For the degree of polarization squeezing, we use a definition written in the final form by the authors and also used in earlier papers. We find that the polarization squeezing can be very high and the degree of polarization squeezing can be less than unity by a very small amount. We achieve the polarization squeezing even for very low beam intensity under some conditions involving phase angles in the polarization modes…
In this paper, the scheme of a force sensor is proposed which has been composed of a hybrid optomechanical cavity containing an interacting cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) where the \textit{s}-wave scattering frequency of the BEC atoms as well as the spring coefficient of the cavity moving end-mirror (the mechanical oscillator) are parametrically modulated. It is shown that in the red-detuned regime and under the so-called impedance-matching condition, the mechanical response of the system to the input signal is enhanced substantially, which leads to the amplification of the weak i…
We propose a scheme to enhance the single- and two-photon blockade effect significantly in a standard optomechanical system (OMS) via optical parametric amplification (OPA). The scheme does not rely on the strong single-photon optomechanical coupling and can eliminate the disadvantages of suppressing multi-photon excitation incompletely. Through analyzing the single-photon blockade (1PB) mechanism and optimizing the system parameters, we obtain a perfect 1PB with a high occupancy probability of single-photon excitation, which means that a high quality and efficient single-photon source can be …
High precision interferometers are the building blocks of precision metrology and the ultimate interferometric sensitivity is limited by the quantum noise. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a compact quantum interferometer involving two optical parametric amplifiers and the squeezed states generated within the interferometer are directly used for the phase-sensing quantum state. By both squeezing shot noise and amplifying phase-sensing intensity the sensitivity improvement of $4.86\pm 0.24$ dB beyond the standard quantum limit is deterministically realized and a minimum detectable…
A simple model of a two-mode non-resonant parametric amplifier is studied with special regard to non-classical features such as revivals and squeezing. The methods used apply for an arbitrary pump parameter. Detailed analytical and explicit expressions are given when the coupling of the two modes has an harmonic time-dependence. Despite its simplicity the model exhibits a very broad range of intricate physical effects. We show that quantum revivals are possible for a broad continuous range of physical parameters in the case of initial Fock states. For coherent states we find that such revivals…
In the framework of the paraxial and of the slowly varying envelope approximations, with reference to a normally dispersive medium or to vacuum, the electromagnetic field is given as a continuous quantum superposition of non-dispersive and non-diffracting wave-packets (namely X-waves). Entangled states as pairs of elementary excitations traveling at (approximately) the same velocity are found in optical parametric amplification.
We present a quantum theory of nondegenerate phase-sensitive parametric amplification in a chi^3 nonlinear medium. The non-zero response time of the Kerr chi^3 nonlinearity determines the quantum-limited noise figure of chi^3 parametric amplification, as well as the limit on quadrature squeezing. This non-zero response time of the nonlinearity requires coupling of the parametric process to a molecular-vibration phonon bath, causing the addition of excess noise through spontaneous Raman scattering. We present analytical expressions for the quantum-limited noise figure of frequency non-degenerat…
We show how polarisation measurements on the output fields generated by parametric down conversion will reveal a violation of multi-particle Bell inequalities, in the regime of both low and high output intensity. In this case each spatially separated system, upon which a measurement is performed, is comprised of more than one particle. In view of the formal analogy with spin systems, the proposal provides an opportunity to test the predictions of quantum mechanics for spatially separated higher spin states. Here the quantum behaviour possible even where measurements are performed on systems of…
A recent article [W.C.W. Huang and H. Batelaan, arXiv:1708.0057v1] analysed the dualism between optical and difference parametric amplification, performing a classical analysis of a system where two electromagnetic fields are produced by another of a frequency which is the difference of the frequency of the other two. The authors claimed that this process would not violate energy conservation at the classical level, but that a quantum description would necessarily require a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and therefore would not exist. In this work we show that the process can proceed quantum mechan…
We propose two schemes to generate entanglement between a pair of mechanical oscillators using parametric amplification. In contrast to existing parametric drive-based protocols, both schemes operate in the steady-state. Using a detuned parametric drive to maintain equilibrium and to couple orthogonal quadratures, our approach can be viewed as a two-mode extension of previous proposals for parametric squeezing. We find that robust steady-state entanglement is possible for matched oscillators with well-controlled coupling. In addition, one of the proposed schemes is robust to differences in the…
We experimentally demonstrate that the quantum entanglement between amplitude and phase quadratures of optical modes produced from a non-degenerate optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) can be enhanced and manipulated phase-sensitively by means of another NOPA. When both NOPAs operate at de-amplification, the entanglement degree is increased at the cavity resonance of the second NOPA. When the first NOPA operates at de-amplification and the second one at amplification, the spectral features of the correlation variances are significantly changed. The experimental results are in good agreement wit…
Using numerical simulations, we show that two coupled qubits can amplify a weak signal about hundredfold. This can be achieved if the two qubits are biased simultaneously by this weak signal and a strong pump signal, both of which having frequencies close to the inter-level transitions in the system. The weak signal strongly affects the spectrum generated by the strong pumping drive by producing and controlling mixed harmonics with amplitudes of the order of the main harmonic of the strong drive. We show that the amplification is robust with respect to noise, with an intensity of the order of …
The study of optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) has been successful in describing and creating nonclassical light for use in fields such as quantum metrology and quantum lithography [Agarwal, et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 24, 2 (2007)]. In this paper we present the theory of an OPA scheme utilizing an entangled state input. The scheme involves two identical OPAs seeded with the maximally path-entangled N00N state (|2,0>+|0,2>)/sqrt{2}. The stimulated amplification results in output state probability amplitudes that have a dependence on the number of photons in each mode, which differs greatly …
Coherent control of optomechanical entanglement and steering via dual parametric amplification
School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理学院）；Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学应用光学北京市重点实验室）；Key Laboratory of Multiscale Spin Physics (Ministry of Education), Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学多尺度自旋物理教育部重点实验室）
High-gain optical parametric amplification is an important nonlinear process used both as a source of coherent infrared light and as a source of nonclassical light. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate an approach to optical parametric amplification that enables extremely large parametric gains with low energy requirements. In conventional nonlinear media driven by femtosecond pulses, multiple dispersion orders limit the effective interaction length available for parametric amplification. Here, we use the dispersion engineering available in periodically poled thin-film lithium niobate n…
Second harmonic generation and optical parametric amplification in negative-index metamaterials (NIMs) are studied. The opposite directions of the wave vector and the Poynting vector in NIMs results in a "backward" phase-matching condition, causing significant changes in the Manley-Rowe relations and spatial distributions of the coupled field intensities. It is shown that absorption in NIMs can be compensated by backward optical parametric amplification. The possibility of distributed-feedback parametric oscillation with no cavity has been demonstrated. The feasibility of the generation of ent…
Cavity optomechanical phenomena, such as cooling, amplification or optomechanically induced transparency, emerge due to a strong imbalance in the dissipation rates of the parametrically coupled electromagnetic and mechanical resonators. Here we analyze the reversed dissipation regime where the mechanical energy relaxation rate exceeds the energy decay rate of the electromagnetic cavity. We demonstrate that this regime allows for mechanically-induced amplification (or cooling) of the electromagnetic mode. Gain, bandwidth, and added noise of this electromagnetic amplifier are derived and compare…
We propose an experimentally feasible method for enhancing the atom-field coupling as well as the ratio between this coupling and dissipation (i.e., cooperativity) of two atoms in an optical cavity. Our method also enables the generation of steady-state nearly-maximal quantum entanglement. Our approach exploits optical parametric amplification to exponentially enhance the atom-cavity interaction and, hence, the cooperativity of the system, with the squeezing-induced fluctuation noise being completely eliminated. Thus, an effective cooperativity much larger than $100$ can be achieved even for m…
We develop a model for parametric amplification, based on a density matrix approach, which naturally accounts for the peculiarities arising for matter waves: significant depletion and explicit time-dependence of the source state population, long interaction times, and spatial dynamics of the amplified modes. We apply our model to explain the details in an experimental study on twin-atom beam emission from a one-dimensional degenerate Bose gas.
We theoretically study the angular displacements estimation based on a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), in which two optical parametric amplifiers (PAs) are introduced into two arms of the standard MZI, respectively. The employment of PAs can both squeeze the shot noise and amplify the photon number inside the interferometer. When the unknown angular displacements are introduced to both arms, we derive the multiparameter quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB) using the quantum Fisher information matrix approach, and the bound of angular displacements difference between the two arms is comp…
We present novel experimental results demonstrating the coherence properties of the nonlinear emission from semiconductor microcavities in the strong coupling regime, recently interpreted by parametric polariton four-wave mixing. We use a geometry corresponding to degenerate four-wave mixing. In addition to the predicted threshold dependence of the emission on the pump power and spectral blue shift, we observe a phase dependence of the amplification which is a signature of a coherent polariton wave mixing process.
We explore an intriguing alternative for a fast and high-fidelity generation of steady-state entanglement. By exponentially enhancing the atom-cavity interaction, we obtain an exponentially-enhanced effective cooperativity of the system, which results in a high fidelity of the state generation. Meanwhile, we modulate the amplitudes of the driving fields to accelerate the population transfer to a target state, e.g., a Bell state. An exponentially-shortened stabilization time is thus predicted. Specifically, when the cooperativity of the system is $C=30$, the fidelity of the acceleration scheme …
Squeezing of the electromagnetic vacuum is an essential metrological technique used to reduce quantum noise in applications spanning gravitational wave detection, biological microscopy, and quantum information science. In superconducting circuits, the resonator-based Josephson-junction parametric amplifiers conventionally used to generate squeezed microwaves are constrained by a narrow bandwidth and low dynamic range. In this work, we develop a dual-pump, broadband Josephson traveling-wave parametric amplifier that combines a phase-sensitive extinction ratio of 56 dB with single-mode squeezing…
