Multi-photon nonclassical states of light based on high-gain parametric down-conversion
Final Report Abstract
The project ‘Multi‐photon nonclassical states of light based on high‐gain parametric down‐conversion’ was aimed at the study and application of the radiation resulting from high‐gain parametric down‐conversion, namely bright squeezed vacuum (BSV). This state of light is macroscopic, i.e., contains a large number of photons, and yet it is strongly nonclassical, because it manifests such quantum effects as squeezing and entanglement. In the course of the project we have developed several methods to study and control the mode structure and spectrum of BSV. The methods of the spectrum/mode structure control are based on the selective amplification of some modes in a nonlinear interferometer. In this device, one high‐gain PDC process is followed by another one, which can enhance or suppress it. Further development of nonlinear interferometry with high‐gain PDC led us to the first direct observation of phase sensitivity below the shot‐ noise limit, with tolerance to detection loss. The tolerance to detection loss was achieved by strong phase‐ sensitive amplification of the state before its detection. Another result of the project is the theoretical proposal to apply a similar strategy for protecting the nonclassical features of BSV against loss. Finally, according to the objectives of the proposal, BSV was used as a pump to generate optical harmonics of orders 2‐4, and up to 2 orders of magnitude efficiency increase has been demonstrated compared to the case of coherent light. All objectives of the project were therefore fulfilled. Meanwhile, three new unexpected results were obtained during the work on the project. The first one is again related to the use of a nonlinear interferometer, which became a hot topic during the last few years. Following a proposal of another group, we implemented the interferometer to measure the quadrature squeezing of highly multimode BSV. The second unexpected result is based on the idea of amplification before detection, and it is the theoretical proposal of sub‐shot‐noise imaging without the requirement of high detection efficiency. The third unexpected result was achieved when we used BSV for nonlinear optical experiments: the statistics of light at the output was so unusual that we observed a power‐law (Pareto) photon‐number distribution with undefined mean value. This last result was reported in a popular newsletter of Max‐Planck Society https://www.mpg.de/12627922/mpl_jb_20181. The results of the project have several potential applications. The sub‐shot‐noise phase sensitivity with tolerance to detection loss is likely to find applications in quantum‐enhanced metrology, spectroscopy and imaging. The high efficiency of BSV for multiphoton processes can be used in multiphoton spectroscopy, especially with fragile biological samples. As a result of the project, a method of absolute calibration of optical spectrometers has been developed and patented.
Publications
- (2019) Indefinite-Mean Pareto Photon Distribution from Amplified Quantum Noise. Physical review letters 123 (12) 123606
Manceau, Mathieu; Spasibko, Kirill Yu; Leuchs, Gerd; Filip, Radim; Chekhova, Maria V.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.123606) - Engineering the Frequency Spectrum of Bright Squeezed Vacuum via Group Velocity Dispersion in an SU(1,1) Interferometer. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 183601 (2016)
Samuel Lemieux, Mathieu Manceau, Polina R. Sharapova, Olga V. Tikhonova, Robert W. Boyd, Gerd Leuchs, Maria V. Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.183601) - Detection Loss Tolerant Supersensitive Phase Measurement with an SU(1,1) Interferometer. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223604 (2017)
Mathieu Manceau, Gerd Leuchs, Farid Khalili, Maria Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.223604) - Improving the phase super‐sensitivity of squeezing‐assisted interferometers by squeeze factor unbalancing. New J. of Physics 19, 013014 (2017)
Mathieu Manceau, Farid Khalili, Maria Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aa53d1) - Multiphoton Effects Enhanced due to Ultrafast Photon‐Number Fluctuations. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223603 (2017)
Kirill Yu. Spasibko, Denis A. Kopylov, Victor L. Krutyanskiy, Tatiana V. Murzina, Gerd Leuchs, Maria V. Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.223603) - Orbital angular momentum modes of high‐gain parametric down‐conversion. J. of Optics 19, 044005 (2017)
Lina Beltran, Gaetano Frascella, Angela M. Perez, Robert Fickler, Polina R. Sharapova, Mathieu Manceau, Olga V. Tikhonova, Robert W. Boyd, Gerd Leuchs, Maria V. Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/2040-8986/aa600f) - Bright squeezed vacuum in a nonlinear interferometer: Frequency and temporal Schmidt‐mode description. Phys. Rev. A 97, 053827 (2018)
P.R. Sharapova, O.V. Tikhonova, S. Lemieux, R.W. Boyd, Maria Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.053827) - Quantum tomography enhanced through parametric amplification. New J. of Physics 20, 013005 (2018)
E. Knyazev, Kirill Spasibko, Maria V. Chekhova, F. Ya Khalili
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aa99b4) - Overcoming inefficient detection in sub‐shot‐ noise absorption measurement and imaging. Optics Express 27, 7868 (2019)
Eugene Knyazev, Farid Khalili, Maria Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.007868) - Study of broadband multimode light via non‐phase‐matched sum frequency generation. New J. of Physics 21, 033024 (2019)
Denis Kopylov, Kirill Spasibko, Tatiana Murzina, Maria Chekhova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab0a7c)
