676 research outputs found
Balanced Homodyne Detection of Optical Quantum States at Audio-Band Frequencies and Below
The advent of stable, highly squeezed states of light has generated great
interest in the gravitational wave community as a means for improving the
quantumnoise- limited performance of advanced interferometric detectors. To
confidently measure these squeezed states, it is first necessary to measure the
shot-noise across the frequency band of interest. Technical noise, such as
non-stationary events, beam pointing, and parasitic interference, can corrupt
shot-noise measurements at low Fourier frequencies, below tens of kilo-Hertz.
In this paper we present a qualitative investigation into all of the relevant
noise sources and the methods by which they can be identified and mitigated in
order to achieve quantum noise limited balanced homodyne detection. Using these
techniques, flat shot-noise down to Fourier frequencies below 0.5 Hz is
produced. This enables the direct observation of large magnitudes of squeezing
across the entire audio-band, of particular interest for ground-based
interferometric gravitational wave detectors. 11.6 dB of shot-noise suppression
is directly observed, with more than 10 dB down to 10 Hz.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure
Long-term stable squeezed vacuum state of light for gravitational wave detectors
Currently, the German/British gravitational wave detector GEO600 is being
upgraded in course of the GEO-HF program. One part of this upgrade consists of
the integration of a squeezed light laser to nonclassically improve the
detection sensitivity at frequencies where the instrument is limited by shot
noise. This has been achieved recently [1]. The permanent employment of
squeezed light in gravitational wave observatories requires a long-term
stability of the generated squeezed state. In this paper, we discuss an
unwanted mechanism that can lead to a varying squeezing factor along with a
changing phase of the squeezed field. We present an extension of the
implemented coherent control scheme [2] that allowed an increase in the
long-term stability of the GEO600 squeezed light laser. With it, a quantum
noise reduction by more than 9 dB in the frequency band of 10 Hz - 10 kHz was
observed over up to 20 hours with a duty cycle of more than 99%
Squeezed-field injection for gravitational wave interferometers
In a recent table-top experiment, we demonstrated the compatibility of three advanced interferometer techniques for gravitational wave detection, namely power-recycling, detuned signal recycling and squeezed-field injection. The interferometer's signal-to-noise ratio was improved by up to 2.8 dB beyond the coherent state's shot-noise. This value was mainly limited by optical losses on the squeezed field. We present a detailed analysis of the optical losses in our experiment and provide an estimation of the possible nonclassical performance of a future squeezed-field enhanced GEO 600 detector
Squeezed light at sideband frequencies below 100 kHz from a single OPA
Quantum noise of the electromagnetic field is one of the limiting noise
sources in interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Shifting the spectrum
of squeezed vacuum states downwards into the acoustic band of gravitational
wave detectors is therefore of challenging demand to quantum optics
experiments. We demonstrate a system that produces nonclassical continuous
variable states of light that are squeezed at sideband frequencies below 100
kHz. A single optical parametric amplifier (OPA) is used in an optical noise
cancellation scheme providing squeezed vacuum states with coherent bright phase
modulation sidebands at higher frequencies. The system has been stably locked
for half an hour limited by thermal stability of our laboratory.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Generalized squeezing operators, bipartite Wigner functions and entanglement via Wehrl's entropy functionals
We introduce a new class of unitary transformations based on the su(1,1) Lie
algebra that generalizes, for certain particular representations of its
generators, well-known squeezing transformations in quantum optics. To
illustrate our results, we focus on the two-mode bosonic representation and
show how the parametric amplifier model can be modified in order to generate
such a generalized squeezing operator. Furthermore, we obtain a general
expression for the bipartite Wigner function which allows us to identify two
distinct sources of entanglement, here labelled by dynamical and kinematical
entanglement. We also establish a quantitative estimate of entanglement for
bipartite systems through some basic definitions of entropy functionals in
continuous phase-space representations.Comment: 16 page
GEO 600 and the GEO-HF upgrade program: successes and challenges
The German-British laser-interferometric gravitational wave detector GEO 600
is in its 14th year of operation since its first lock in 2001. After GEO 600
participated in science runs with other first-generation detectors, a program
known as GEO-HF began in 2009. The goal was to improve the detector sensitivity
at high frequencies, around 1 kHz and above, with technologically advanced yet
minimally invasive upgrades. Simultaneously, the detector would record science
quality data in between commissioning activities. As of early 2014, all of the
planned upgrades have been carried out and sensitivity improvements of up to a
factor of four at the high-frequency end of the observation band have been
achieved. Besides science data collection, an experimental program is ongoing
with the goal to further improve the sensitivity and evaluate future detector
technologies. We summarize the results of the GEO-HF program to date and
discuss its successes and challenges
Cost-benefit analysis for commissioning decisions in GEO600
Gravitational wave interferometers are complex instruments, requiring years
of commissioning to achieve the required sensitivities for the detection of
gravitational waves, of order 10^-21 in dimensionless detector strain, in the
tens of Hz to several kHz frequency band. Investigations carried out by the
GEO600 detector characterisation group have shown that detector
characterisation techniques are useful when planning for commissioning work. At
the time of writing, GEO600 is the only large scale laser interferometer
currently in operation running with a high duty factor, 70%, limited chiefly by
the time spent commissioning the detector. The number of observable
gravitational wave sources scales as the product of the volume of space to
which the detector is sensitive and the observation time, so the goal of
commissioning is to improve the detector sensitivity with the least possible
detector down time. We demonstrate a method for increasing the number of
sources observable by such a detector, by assessing the severity of
non-astrophysical noise contaminations to efficiently guide commissioning. This
method will be particularly useful in the early stages and during the initial
science runs of the aLIGO and adVirgo detectors, as they are brought up to
design performance.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures, 2 table
A search algorithm for quantum state engineering and metrology
In this paper we present a search algorithm that finds useful optical quantum states which can be created with current technology. We apply the algorithm to the field of quantum metrology with the goal of finding states that can measure a phase shift to a high precision. Our algorithm efficiently produces a number of novel solutions: we find experimentally-ready schemes to produce states that show significant improvements over the state-of-the-art, and can measure with a precision that beats the shot noise limit by over a factor of 4. Furthermore, these states demonstrate a robustness to moderate/high photon losses, and we present a conceptually simple measurement scheme that saturates the Cramer-Rao bound
Quantum Measurement Theory in Gravitational-Wave Detectors
The fast progress in improving the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave (GW)
detectors, we all have witnessed in the recent years, has propelled the
scientific community to the point, when quantum behaviour of such immense
measurement devices as kilometer-long interferometers starts to matter. The
time, when their sensitivity will be mainly limited by the quantum noise of
light is round the corner, and finding the ways to reduce it will become a
necessity. Therefore, the primary goal we pursued in this review was to
familiarize a broad spectrum of readers with the theory of quantum measurements
in the very form it finds application in the area of gravitational-wave
detection. We focus on how quantum noise arises in gravitational-wave
interferometers and what limitations it imposes on the achievable sensitivity.
We start from the very basic concepts and gradually advance to the general
linear quantum measurement theory and its application to the calculation of
quantum noise in the contemporary and planned interferometric detectors of
gravitational radiation of the first and second generation. Special attention
is paid to the concept of Standard Quantum Limit and the methods of its
surmounting.Comment: 147 pages, 46 figures, 1 table. Published in Living Reviews in
Relativit
Observation of squeezed light from one atom excited with two photons
Single quantum emitters like atoms are well-known as non-classical light
sources which can produce photons one by one at given times, with reduced
intensity noise. However, the light field emitted by a single atom can exhibit
much richer dynamics. A prominent example is the predicted ability for a single
atom to produce quadrature-squeezed light, with sub-shot-noise amplitude or
phase fluctuations. It has long been foreseen, though, that such squeezing
would be "at least an order of magnitude more difficult" to observe than the
emission of single photons. Squeezed beams have been generated using
macroscopic and mesoscopic media down to a few tens of atoms, but despite
experimental efforts, single-atom squeezing has so far escaped observation.
Here we generate squeezed light with a single atom in a high-finesse optical
resonator. The strong coupling of the atom to the cavity field induces a
genuine quantum mechanical nonlinearity, several orders of magnitude larger
than for usual macroscopic media. This produces observable quadrature squeezing
with an excitation beam containing on average only two photons per system
lifetime. In sharp contrast to the emission of single photons, the squeezed
light stems from the quantum coherence of photon pairs emitted from the system.
The ability of a single atom to induce strong coherent interactions between
propagating photons opens up new perspectives for photonic quantum logic with
single emittersComment: Main paper (4 pages, 3 figures) + Supplementary information (5 pages,
2 figures). Revised versio
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