Observation of Squeezed Light in an Optical Cavity

Abstract

We report the observation of squeezed light noise at power levels near the vacuum fluctuation level using nondegenerate four-wave-mixinq in an optical cavity.(1-4) The light at cavity resonances is observed using a balanced homodyne detector with a portion of the pump beam serving as a local oscillator.(5) The noise power is amplified by a factor A at a particular phase and attenuated by 1/A at a phase shift of 90°. This is a basic identifying characteristic of squeezed 1ight.