Generation of bright polarization squeezed light at cesium D2 line based on optical parameter amplifier

Abstract

Quantum light field is very important source in quantum optics and quantum precision measurement, and the generation of quantum state of light is significant in quantum storage, quantum metrology and studying the interaction between nonclassical light and matter. The polarization squeezed light near the atomic transition has great potential applications in the precise measurement of magnetic field as its Stokes parameter’s noise is less than the standard quantum limit (SQL). Therefore, it is very important to generate the polarization squeezed light at atomic transition. We report in this paper the experiment on generating the bright polarization squeezed light at cesium D₂ line based on an optical parametric amplifier (OPA). The experimental system includes the following three parts: 1) a second harmonic generator (SHG), 2) an OPA, and 3) a detection system. The OPA has a similar structure to the SHG system with four-mirror ring cavity in which only the fundamental wave is resonant. A nonlinear type-I periodically-poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal with a size of 1 mm × 2 mm × 20 mm is placed in the center of the cavity waist and its temperature is precisely controlled. The OPA is pumped by the 426 nm blue light which is generated by SHG and this OPA is operating below the threshold. The squeezed light at cesium D₂ line is produced when the crystal temperature is at its optimum phase-matching temperature and the OPA cavity is stabilized based on resonance. The generated squeezed light is combined with the coherent light on a polarizing beam splitter (PBS) to obtain the polarized squeezed light for either <inline-formula><tex-math id="M4">\begin{document}${\hat S_2} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M4.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M4.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> or <inline-formula><tex-math id="M5">\begin{document}${\hat S_3} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M5.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M5.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> of the Stokes parameter by controlling the type of squeezed light (parametric amplification or de-amplification) and the relative phase (0 or π/2) of two beams. And for <inline-formula><tex-math id="M6">\begin{document}${\hat S_1} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M6.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M6.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula>, the amplitude-squeezed light (corresponding to parametric de-amplification) is the <inline-formula><tex-math id="M7">\begin{document}${\hat S_1} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M7.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20191009_M7.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> squeezed light. The maximum squeezing of 4.3 dB (actually 5.2 dB) is observed in a bandwidth range of 2-10 MHz. At present, the squeezing is mainly limited by the escape efficiency of OPA and the detection efficiency, and the OPA escape efficiency is mainly limited by the blue-light-induced loss of PPKTP crystal and the thermal effect of crystal. In the optical atomic magnetometer, increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the system can effectively improve the sensitivity of the magnetic field measurement. This bright polarization squeezed light is expected to be used in the optical cesium atomic magnetometer to improve the sensitivity of the magnetometer.