Detail Project and Funding

Abstract: The project aims to demonstrate the possibility of manipulating and controlling the spectral dependence of the field quadratures fluctuations of squeezed light, by effect of opto-mechanical interaction. The optomechanical system is a single-ended high-finesse Fabry-Pérot cavity, whose end mirror is a mechanical microresonator, supported by a silicon spring .The mirror must have low mechanical (Q ~ 10^6) and optical losses (5×10^4 of finesse when used in cavity). The squeezed light is generated by a sub-threshold optical parametric oscillator.
The interplay between mechanical and cavity optical modes gives rise to a variety of effects which, in the quantum regime, enables the exploration of quantum mechanics in entirely new ways. A striking consequence of the optomechanical interaction is the coupling induced between light’s amplitude and phase fluctuations. Indeed, amplitude noise of the impinging beam, acting through radiation pressure, randomly drives a mechanical element, whose motion, in turn, induces phase fluctuations on the reflected beam, establishing a correlation between the two quadratures. This way, it is possible to squeeze the noise at different quadrature angles, as a function of the spectral frequency (ponderomotive squeezing). If the impinging field is already a squeezed state of light, the optomechanical interaction can manipulate the squeezing, tailoring both the level and quadrature.

INO’s Experiments/Theoretical Study correlated:
Optomechanical tailoring of squeezed light

The Scientific Results:
1) Modulation Instability Induced Frequency Comb Generation in a Continuously Pumped Optical Parametric Oscillator