The Experimental Difficulty of Optical Squeezed-State Generation

Abstract

Squeezed or two-photon coherent states of electromagnetic radiation show phase-dependent quantum fluctuations in the complex amplitude in contrast to the coherent states normally encountered in quantum electronics. Since the product of the quantum-mechanical uncertainties in the two quadratures can remain equal to the limit set by the uncertainty principle, squeezed states can give reduced quantum noise in certain experiments. Such states have been the subject of much theoretical study1 but so far eluded experimental realization. © 1984 Optical Society of America