Hsu, MagnusHetet, GabrielPeng, AmyHarb, CharlesBachor, HansJohnsson, MattiasHope, JosephLam, Ping KoyDantan, A.Cviklinski, J.Bramati, A.Pinard, M.2015-12-071050-2947http://hdl.handle.net/1885/17217The traversal of an elliptically polarized optical field through a thermal vapor cell can give rise to a rotation of its polarization axis. This process, known as polarization self-rotation (PSR), has been suggested as a mechanism for producing squeezed light at atomic transition wavelengths. We show results of the characterization of PSR in isotopically enhanced rubidium-87 cells, performed in two independent laboratories. We observed that, contrary to earlier work, the presence of atomic noise in the thermal vapor overwhelms the observation of squeezing. We present a theory that contains atomic noise terms and show that a null result in squeezing is consistent with this theory.Keywords: Characterization; Light polarization; Spurious signal noise; Vapors; Atomic noise; Atomic transition; Polarization self-rotation (PSR); Thermal vapor cells; Atomic physics200610.1103/PhysRevA.73.0238062015-12-07