Observation of -9 dB quadrature squeezing with improvement of phase stability in homodyne measurement

We observe -9.01$\pm$0.14 dB of squeezing and +15.12$\pm$0.14 dB of antisqueezing with a local oscillator phase locked in homodyne measurement. In reference [1], two main factors are pointed out which degrade the observed squeezing level: phase fluctuation in homodyne measurement and intracavity losses of an optical parametric oscillator for squeezing. We have improved the phase stability of homodyne measurement and have reduced the intracavity losses. We measure pump power dependences of the squeezing and antisqueezing levels, which show good agreement with theoretical calculations taking account of the phase fluctuation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Experimental Demonstration of Macroscopic Quantum Coherence in Gaussian States

We witness experimentally the presence of macroscopic coherence in Gaussian quantum states using a recently proposed criterion (E.G. Cavalcanti and M. Reid, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 170405 (2006)). The macroscopic coherence stems from interference between macroscopically distinct states in phase space and we prove experimentally that even the vacuum state contains these features with a distance in phase space of $0.51\pm0.02$ shot noise units (SNU). For squeezed states we found macroscopic superpositions with a distance of up to $0.83\pm0.02$ SNU. The proof of macroscopic quantum coherence was investigated with respect to squeezing and purity of the states.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure