We present theoretical results that demonstrate a new technique to be used to improve the sensitivity of thermal noise measurements: intra-cavity intensity stabilisation. It is demonstrated that electro-optic feedback can be used to reduce intra-cavity intensity fluctuations, and the consequent radiation pressure fluctuations, by a factor of two below the quantum noise limit. We show that this is achievable in the presence of large classical intensity fluctuations on the incident laser beam. The benefits of this scheme are a consequence of the sub-Poissonian intensity statistics of the field inside a feedback loop, and the quantum non-demolition nature of radiation pressure noise as a readout system for the intra-cavity intensity fluctuations.
We investigate the reduction of the electromagnetic field fluctuations in resonance fluorescence from a single emitter coupled to an optical nanostructure. We find that such hybrid system can lead to the creation of squeezed states of light, with quantum fluctuations significantly below the shot noise level. Moreover, the physical conditions for achieving squeezing are strongly relaxed with respect to an emitter in free space. A high degree of control over squeezed light is feasible both in the far and near fields, opening the pathway to its manipulation and applications on the nanoscale with …
Recent advances in micro- and nanofabrication techniques have led to corresponding improvement in the performance of optomechanical systems, which provide a promising avenue towards quantum-limited metrology and the study of quantum behavior in macroscopic mechanical objects. One major impediment to reaching the quantum regime is thermal excitation, which can be overcome for sufficiently high mechanical quality factor Q. Here, we propose a method for increasing the effective Q of a mechanical resonator by stiffening it via the optical spring effect exhibited by linear optomechanical systems, a…
Extraneous thermal motion can limit displacement sensitivity and radiation pressure effects, such as optical cooling, in a cavity-optomechanical system. Here we present an active noise suppression scheme and its experimental implementation. The main challenge is to selectively sense and suppress extraneous thermal noise without affecting motion of the oscillator. Our solution is to monitor two modes of the optical cavity, each with different sensitivity to the oscillator's motion but similar sensitivity to the extraneous thermal motion. This information is used to imprint "anti-noise" onto the…
Probabilistic quantum non-demolition (QND) measurements can be performed using linear optics and post-selection. Here we show how QND devices of this kind can be used in a straightforward way to implement a quantum relay, which is capable of extending the range of a quantum cryptography system by suppressing the effects of detector noise. Unlike a quantum repeater, a quantum relay system does not require entanglement purification or the ability to store photons.
We propose a protocol for conditional suppression of losses in direct quantum state transmission over a lossy quantum channel. The method works by noiselessly attenuating the input state prior to transmission through a lossy channel followed by noiseless amplification of the output state. The procedure does not add any noise hence it keeps quantum coherence. We experimentally demonstrate it in the subspace spanned by vacuum and single-photon states, and consider its general applicability.
We examine the effect of different sources of technical noise on inverse weak value-based precision phase measurements. We find that this type of measurement is similarly robust to technical noise as related experiments in the weak value regime. In particular, the measurements considered here are robust to additive Gaussian white noise and angular jitter noise commonly encountered in optical experiments. Additionally, we show the same techniques used for precision phase measurement can be used with the same technical advantages for optical frequency measurements.
In this work, sidebands suppression brought by buffer gas argon (Ar) in cesium Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter (FADOF) at 852 nm is investigated. FADOF performances at different Ar pressures (0 torr, 1 torr, 5 torr and 10 torr) are compared, and a single-peak transmittance spectrum with peak transmittance up to 80% is achieved at the high Ar pressure. A detailed analysis shows that, this sidebands suppression comes from the depopulation enhancement by the buffer gas. This result can be generalized to other FADOFs with similar level structures such as the D2 lines of other alkali me…
A new concept of a free-space, high-speed (Gbps) optical communication system based on spectral encoding of radiation from a broadband pulsed laser is developed. It is shown that, in combination with the use of partially coherent laser beams and a relatively slow photosensor, scintillations can be suppressed by orders of magnitude for distances of more than 10 km. We also consider the spectral encoding of radiation from a LED as a gigabit rate solution of the "last mile" problem and rapid-deployment systems for disaster recovery.
We calculate radiative lifetimes of collective electronic excitations of atoms in an infinite one dimensional lattice. The translational symmetry along the lattice restricts the photon wave vector component parallel to the lattice to the exciton wave number and thus the possible emission directions. The resulting radiation damping rate and emission pattern of the exciton strongly deviates from independent atom. For some wave numbers and polarizations the excitons superradiantly decay very fast, while other excitons show zero radiation damping rate and form propagating meta-stable excitations. …
The characterization of mixtures of non-interacting, spectroscopically similar quantum components has important applications in chemistry, biology, and materials science. We introduce an approach based on quantum tracking control that allows for determining the relative concentrations of constituents in a quantum mixture, using a single pulse which enhances the distinguishability of components of the mixture and has a length that scales linearly with the number of mixture constituents. To illustrate the method, we consider two very distinct model systems: mixtures of diatomic molecules in the …
We study enhanced sensing of optomechanically induced nonlinearity (OMIN) in a cavity-waveguide coupled system. The Hamiltonian of the system is anti-PT symmetric with the two involved cavities being dissipatively coupled via the waveguide. When a weak waveguide-mediated coherent coupling is introduced, the anti-PT symmetry may break down. However, we find a strong bistable response of the cavity intensity to the OMIN near the cavity resonance, benefiting from linewidth suppression caused by the vacuum induced coherence. The joint effect of optical bistability and the linewidth suppression is …
The Abbe's diffraction limit restricts the resolution of an optical imaging and lithography system. Coherent Rabi oscillation is shown to be able to overcome the diffraction limit in both optical and atom lithography. In previous studies, semiclassical theory is applied where the driving field is treated as a classical light and quantum fluctuation is neglected. Here, we show that the quantum fluctuation may reduce the visibility of the superresolution pattern. However, by squeezing the photon number fluctuation we are able to significantly increase its visibility.
We investigate how hot-electron fluctuations in n-type Si are affected by the presence of an intense (static) magnetic field in a Hall geometry. By using the Monte Carlo method, we find that the known Hall-effect-induced redistribution of electrons among valleys can suppress electron fluctuations with a simultaneous enhancement of the drift velocity.
A new analytical method is presented here, offering a physical view of driven cavities where the external field cannot be neglected. We introduce a new dimensionless complex parameter, intrinsically linked to the cooperativity parameter of optical bistability, and analogous to the scaled Rabbi frequency for driven systems where the field is classical. Classes of steady states are iteratively constructed and expressions for the diffusion and friction coefficients at lowest order also derived. They have in most cases the same mathematical form as their free-space analog. The method offers a semi…
We investigate the dynamic nuclear polarization process by frequently injecting polarized electron spins into a quantum dot. Due to the suppression of the direct dipolar and indirect electron-mediated nuclear spin interactions, by the frequently injected electron spins, the analytical predictions under the independent spin approximation agree well with quantum numerical simulations. Our results show that the acquired nuclear polarization is highly inhomogeneous, proportional to the square of the local electron-nuclear hyperfine interaction constant, if the injection frequency is high. Utilizin…
We measure and characterize anomalous motional decoherence of an atomic ion confined in the lowest quantum levels of a novel rf ion trap that features moveable electrodes. The scaling of decoherence rate with electrode proximity is measured, and when the electrodes are cooled from 300 K to 150 K, the decoherence rate is suppressed by an order of magnitude. This provides direct evidence that anomalous motional decoherence of trapped ions stems from microscopic noisy potentials on the electrodes. These observations are relevant to quantum information processing schemes using trapped ions or othe…