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