Observation of Squeezed Light with 10-dB Quantum-Noise Reduction

Abstract

Squeezing of light’s quantum noise requires temporal rearranging of photons. This again corresponds to creation of quantum correlations between individual photons. Squeezed light is a nonclassical manifestation of light with great potential in high-precision quantum measurements, for example, in the detection of gravitational waves [C. M. Caves, Phys. Rev. D 23, 1693 (1981)]. Equally promising applications have been proposed in quantum communication [H. P. Yuen and J. H. Shapiro, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 24, 657 (1978)]. However, after 20 years of intensive research doubts arose whether strong squeezing can ever be realized as required for eminent applications. Here we show experimentally that strong squeezing of light’s quantum noise is possible. We reached a benchmark squeezing factor of 10 in power (10 dB). Thorough analysis reveals that even higher squeezing factors will be feasible in our setup.