Generation and detection of squeezed states of light by nondegenerate four-wave mixing in an optical fiber

Nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a single-mode optical fiber is proposed as a method of squeezed state generation. An analysis of the near-degenerate mixing process for forward propagation in realistic fibers is presented along with the theory of an experimentally feasible detection strategy. The effects of the quantum nature of the optical nonlinearity and absorption are modeled by treating the fiber medium as a collection of anharmonic oscillators. Methods of suppressing undesired effects such as stimulated Brillouin scattering are presented as is a technique for providing the phase-shifted local oscillator wave necessary for the detection of squeezing. Preliminary experiments on fiber characterization and the detection of four-wave parametric fluorescence are described. © 1985 The American Physical Society.