Quantum correlations in dual quantum measurements

 We analyze the quantum measurement properties of dual non-degenerate parametric amplifers in the twin-beam configuration, in the cascaded back-action-evasion configuration, and in Kerr-type photon-number quantum non-demolition measurements. It is found that Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations can be obtained between the quadrature components of an idler mode and the sum of the readout of two signal modes. Furthermore, we discuss dual-mode quantum non-demolition measurements on the combination of two light modes, and the generation of number-state entanglement. Received: 12 April 1996/Revised version: 2 July 1996     

Cascaded χ(2) nonlinearity in QND measurement

 QND measurement schemes often use Kerr nonlinearity to couple the intensity fluctuations of the signal beam to the phase fluctuations of the probe beam by means of the cross-phase modulation effect. Such schemes use materials with intrinsic χ⁽³⁾nonlinearity. However, it has already been shown that Kerr-effect-like correlation between two light waves may be achieved through cascaded χ⁽²⁾: χ⁽²⁾ processes. The value of the nonlinearity induced by cascading χ⁽²⁾ can, in many cases, be much higher than fibre χ⁽³⁾. The authors point out the possibility of using the cascaded χ⁽²⁾ nonlinearity instead of intrinsic χ⁽³⁾ nonlinearity in the scheme which resembles the well-known photon number QND measurement scheme. The non-degenerate second-harmonic generation (SHG) with a large phase mismatch is considered. The harmonic wave influence on the measurements is shown. High QND measurement characteristics can be achieved with the use of an appropriate set of parameters. Received: 6 April 1996     

The scheme of QND meter of microwave quadrature amplitude

 We propose a new scheme of QND measurement in microwave band. It is shown that with deflection of electron beam in the electric field of a microwave resonator it is possible to measure quadrature amplitude of oscillations with the precision substantially exceeding the standard quantum limit. Estimates for the parameters of the experimental setup are presented. Received: 27 March 1996/Revised version: 5 August 1996     

A ponderomotive scheme for QND measurement of quadrature component

We propose a scheme for quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement of the quadrature component of a traveling wave, which uses the nonlinear ponderomotive interaction of electromagnetic waves reflected from a movable mirror. The influence of mechanical and optical losses and of imbalance in the interferometer arms is analyzed. Received: 27 March 1996 / Revised version: 25 September 1996     

Repeated quantum non-demolition measurements

 We describe, in detail, theoretical and experimental aspects related to our recently reported repeated back-action evading measurements performed using two travelling-wave optical parametric amplifiers in series. The state of the observable being measured is almost perfectly preserved after two successive measurements. The final signal, and the intermediate measurement of the two successive setups are quantum correlated with conditional variances that lie in the quantum regime. Moreover, we show that the two independent measurements are quantum correlated up to 30%. Received: 11 April 1996/Revised version: 18 July 1996     

Quantum nondemolition measurement by optomechanical coupling

 We show that a single-port optical cavity with a movable mirror can provide a quantum non-demolition measurement of the intensity of a light beam. Due to radiation pressure, the cavity length is sensitive to the light intensity and can be measured with a secondary light beam. Signal-meter correlations can be made very large even at non-zero temperature. We study these correlations when the moving mirror is a plane–convex crystal resonator and we show the importance of spatial matching between light and acoustic modes. Received: 12 June 1996/Revised version: 3 September 1996     

Quantum nondemolition measurements on two-level atomic systems and temporal Bell inequalities

The evolution of a two-level system subjected to stimulated transitions which is undergoing a sequence of measurements of the level occupation probability is evaluated. Its time correlation function is compared to the one obtained through the pure Schr?dinger evolution. Systems of this kind have been recently proposed for testing the quantum mechanical predictions against those of macrorealistic theories, by means of temporal Bell inequalities. The classical requirement of noninvasivity, needed to define correlation functions in the realistic case, finds a quantum counterpart in the quantum nondemolition condition. The consequences on the observability of quantum mechanically predicted violations to temporal Bell inequalities are drawn and compared to the already dealt case of the rf-SQUID dynamics. Received: 28 March 1996 / Revised version: 13 August 1996     

Conditional Schrödinger cats generation and detection by quantum non-demolition measurements

 We show that a Schr?dinger cat state can be generated using a crossed Kerr interaction between two optical modes and an appropriate conditional measurement on one of the modes. The effect of damping on the generation process is analyzed in detail and two possible detection schemes for the cat state are presented. Received: 15 May 1996     

Continuous QND measurements: no quantum noise

Monitoring an arbitrary observable is analyzed in the framework of Restricted-Path-Integral (RPI) theory of continuous quantum measurements. While in an usual (quantum-demolition) continuous measurement the measurement noise contains both classical and quantum parts, only the classical noise is shown to be present in a quantum nondemolition (QND) continuous measurement. As a result, no absolute restrictions exist on measurability of a QND observable and the measurement output satisfies the classical equation of motion. Monitoring the energy gives an example of a discrete-spectrum observable. Received: 7 April 1996 / Revised version: 7 August 1996     

Radiation noise of an active interferometer

 An investigation of the behaviour of amplitude and frequency noise of radiation of an active interferometer in the regime of amplified optical bistability is presented. The phenomenon of non-amplification of external signal noise at sharp amplification of the external signal is established. The impact of strong amplitude fluctuations is studied. Our results have shown that the active interferometer allows an effective separation of the valid signal from the amplitude noise. The spectral density of a fluctuation of the field frequency in the active interferometer is shown to fall sharply in comparison with the “quantum limit”. The linewidth of radiation is determined by the spectral density at zero frequency and is equal to the natural linewidth of the external signal. The influence of quantum noise of the amplifying and absorbing media of the active interferometer is discussed. Received: 26 January 1996     

Continuous frequency up-conversion in a double-Λ scheme of Na2

 In a double-Λ level configuration of Na₂ molecules, involving rotational–vibrational levels of the X, A and B bands, continuous resonant frequency mixing ω₄=ω₁−ω₂+ω₃ is demonstrated. A DCM dye laser at 661 nm (λ₁) pumps a molecular Raman laser at 746 nm (λ₂) in a sodium heatpipe, which is used to generate the molecular vapour. In the same heatpipe, both fields are mixed with the radiation of an argon-ion laser at 514 nm (λ₃) to generate up-converted laser radiation at 473 nm (λ₄). For laser powers of 200 mW (λ₁), 700 mW (λ₂, internal power) and 140 mW (λ₃), an output power of 120 μW (λ₄) has been achieved. Dependences of the generated radiation on the pump fields (powers and detunings) and polarization features are presented; influences of coherent coupling and population transfer mechanisms are discussed. Received: 7 October 1996     

Subthreshold tunable OPO: a source of nonclassical light for atomic physics experiments

Received: 11 March 1998/Revised version: 1 April 1998     

Tunable twin beams generated by a type-I LNB OPO

We present a novel scheme to separate spatially twin beams generated by a type-I lithium niobate (LNB) optical parametric oscillator near frequency degeneracy. The system is based on a holographic diffraction grating acting as a beam splitter in a balanced detector. The fast and easy temperature tuning of LNB index of refraction allows an easy control of the twin-beam wavelength distance in a range of the order of ∼100 nm. We report correlation spectra measured for different twin-beam wavelength separations (15–60 nm) with a maximum noise reduction of 3.2 dB at 3.5 MHz. The described system exhibited a pump resonance stability longer than 6 h with infrared output power fluctuations within 4% around an average value of ≃2 mW in each beam. The measured oscillation threshold pump power was lower than 31 mW. Received: 7 June 2001 / Revised version: 17 July 2001 / Published online: 10 October 2001     

Z-scan measurements of photorefractive nonlinearities for a SBN: Ce crystal

 In this paper, we derived the Z-scan formula for a photorefractive crystal sample under an external applied electric field. The far-field diffraction pattern of a Gaussian beam wavefront through a photorefractive crystal is calculated by considering spatial-phase perturbation induced by the space-charge field. The photorefractive drift nonlinearities and correspondingly, the electro-optic coefficients r ₃₃, r ₁₃, (r ₂₃) and the characteristic ratio n ³ _e r ₃₃/n ³ _o r ₁₃ for a cerium-doped Sr_0.61Ba_0.39Nb₂O₆ crystal are determined from the Z-scan experiments. Z-scan with enhanced sensitivity is also realized by measuring the normalized transmittance at the off-axis position in the far field. A deviation between the off-axis Z-scan experimental results and the theoretical prediction is discussed too. Received: 22 July 1996/Revised version: 7 October 1996     

Experimental study of a Back Action Evading device for continuos measurements on a macroscopic harmonic oscillator at the quantum limit level

The Back Action Evading technique is a particular kind of quantum non demolition measurement, first proposed by Caves et al. in 1980 [3]. We present an experimental study to implement the Back Action Evading measurement scheme in monitoring the amplitude of an harmonic oscillator excited by a classical force. Results showing the agreement of our theoretical model with the experimental behaviour of our apparatus in the classical regime are presented. We discuss also the optimization of the performance of our set-up, which should allow to monitor our oscillator in quantum regime even below the standard quantum limit level. Received: 22 March 1996     

Quantum trajectories of interacting pseudo-spin networks

Received: 12 June 1998     

Continuous-wave quantum nondemolition measurements with vacuum and nonclassical meter input

QND measurements of the amplitude quadrature of continuous-wave light are performed with a monolithic dual-port degenerate optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Operated with a vacuum meter input, both output beams are squeezed and 33% correlated, demonstrating individually squeezed twin beams. The sum of the signal and meter transfer coefficients is 1.05, demonstrating operation as a quantum optical tap. The device exhibits quantum state preparation ability for both signal and meter output, reaching the conditional variances of dB and dB, respectively. An improved quantum measurement is realized by injecting 3.4 dB amplitude-squeezed light into the meter input port of the OPA. This achieves increased correlation and squeezing of the output beams, and both improved operation as a quantum optical tap and as a quantum state preparator. The all-solid-state system was operated for up to 5 hours with high stability. Received: 25 July 1996     

Resonances and spectral properties of detuned OPOs pumped by fluctuating sources

Twin-beam fluctuations are analyzed for detuned and mismatched OPO configurations. Resonances and frequency responses to the quantum noise sources (quantum and pump amplitude/phase fluctuations) are examined as functions of cavity decay rates, excitation parameters and detuning. The dependence of self- and mutual correlations of beam amplitudes and phases on detuning, mismatch and damping parameters is discussed. Received: 25 January 2002 / Revised version: 28 May 2002 / Published online: 15 November 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +39-81/676-346, E-mail: alberto.porzio@na.infn.it     

QND-measurement of twin beams by phase sensitive preamplification

We propose a QND-measurement of twin beams to improve the noise suppression achieved with squeezed states, which is currently limited by the finite sensitivity of the photo detectors. The scheme can be implemented with existing fiber technology. Received: 31 January 1996 / Revised version: 24 June 1996