Abstract

In a parametric down conversion process a pump photon produces a pair of correlated signal and idler photons. In nondegenerate parametric oscillator there is a strong correlation between the intensities and phases of the signal and idler beams„ The quantum statistics of the non-degenerate parametric oscillator contain some interesting features not found in the degenerate device particularly above threshold. In the non-degenerate device particularly above threshold. In the non-degenerate parametric amplifier one pump photon is destroyed and a signal and idler photon are simultaneously created. The simultaneous creation of the photon pairs has been demonstrated experimentally by Burnham and Weinberg⁽¹⁾ and Friberg et al.⁽²⁾ Experiments which use the correlation between the signal and idler photons to generate a photon number state have been done by Brown et al.⁽³⁾ Since the photons are created in pairs, the fluctuations in the difference of the signal and idler photocurrents will be greatly reduced. This property is exploited by Reynaud et al.⁽⁴⁾ who show that perfect noise suppression is possible in the difference between the intensities for the signal and idler beams in the output of a parametric oscillator above threshold.

© 1988 Optical Society of America