Abstract

The existence of squeezed states of light lias attracted considerable attention in the last few years. These states reduce fluctuations in one of the two quadrature components of the electric field below its coherent state value, while the other quadrature exhibits enhanced fluctuations. A number of theoretical methods for the generation of squeezed states have recently been proposed and the first successful experiments have been reported [1]. The usual way to identify squeezed, states is by having recourse to a one- or two-port homodyne experiment in which the light measured is mixed, with the beam from a local oscillator. The theory of homodyne detection of squeezed light with application to resonance fluorescence has been developed by Handel [2] and Loudon [3].

© 1988 Optical Society of America