Fibre-optic photon-number squeezing in the normal group-velocity dispersion regime

• Published in: Journal of modern optics 1998-12, Vol.45 (12), p.2425-2431, Article 2425
• Main Authors: König, F., Spälter, S., Shumay, I. L., Sizmann, A., Fauster, Th, Leuchs, G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Circuit properties; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Integrated optics. Optical fibers and wave guides; Nonlinear optics; Optical and optoelectronic circuits; Optics; Physics; Propagation, scattering, and losses; solitons; Quantum fluctuations, quantum noise, and quantum jumps; Quantum optics; Ultrafast processes; optical pulse generation and pulse compression
• ISSN: 0950-0340; 1362-3044
• DOI: 10.1080/09500349808230495

The nonlinear optical Kerr effect, acting on optical pulses in fibres, creates spectral sidebands and noise correlations between these sidebands. The reduction of photon-number fluctuations of these pulses below the shot-noise limit by spectral filtering is well established in the anomalous dispersion regime which allows for soliton formation. Here it is demonstrated that a significant quantum-noise reduction with spectral filtering can also be reached for pulses in the normal dispersion regime. The filter function was optimized and the power dependence of the noise reduction was investigated. The best squeezing result is (1.2 ± 0.2) dB (corresponding to (2.6 ± 0.7) dB inferred for 100% detection efficiency).