An investigation of doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillators and nonlinear crystals for squeezing
Date
2011
Authors
Stefszky, Michael
Mow-Lowry, C
McKenzie, Kirk
Chua, Sheon
Buchler, Benjamin
Symul, Thomas
McClelland, David
Lam, Ping Koy
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Publisher
Institute of Physics Publishing
Abstract
A squeezed light source requires properties such as high squeezing amplitude, high bandwidth and stability over time, ideally using as few resources, such as laser power, as possible. We compare three nonlinear materials, two of which have not been well characterized for squeezed state production, and also investigate the viability of doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator cavities in achieving these requirements. A model is produced that provides a new way of looking at the construction of an optical parametric oscillator/optical parametric amplifier setup where second harmonic power is treated as a limited resource. The well-characterized periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) is compared in an essentially identical setup to two relatively new materials, periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate (PPSLT) and 1.7% magnesium oxide doped periodically poled stoichiometric lithium niobate (PPSLN). Although from the literature PPSLT and PPSLN present advantages such as a higher damage threshold and a higher nonlinearity, respectively, PPKTP was still found to have the most desirable properties. With PPKTP, 5.8 dB of squeezing below the shot noise limit was achieved. With PPSLT, 5.0 dB of squeezing was observed but the power required to see this squeezing was much higher than expected. A technical problem with the PPSLN limited the observed squeezing to around 1.0 dB. This problem is discussed.
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Keywords
Keywords: Damage threshold; High bandwidth; Laser power; Magnesium oxides; New material; Noise limit; Non-Linearity; Nonlinear crystals; Nonlinear materials; Periodically poled; Second-harmonic power; Squeezed light sources; Squeezed state; Stoichiometric lithium n
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Source
Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Type
Journal article
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2037-12-31
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