Abstract

At a previous OSA conference the author introduced the phenomenon of ultrasqueezed light, produced by three-wave and four-wave mixing in nonlinear media pumped at multiple frequencies spaced so as to produce appropriate phase-matching. Here quantitative results are given of the advantages offered by ultrasqueezing in terms of the degree of squeezing obtainable for a given total amount of input pump power. Phase-matching requirements and detection techniques are described, and resulting implications for the usefulness (enhanced squeezing vs ease of production and detection) are indicated. The results differ appreciably for three-wave and four-wave mixing. Several different experimental schemes for producing ultrasqueezed light are described using three-wave and four-wave mixing. Only one of these, four-wave mixing with two pump frequencies in an optical fiber, has been attempted experimentally; its success has been described at a previous OSA conference and is reviewed only briefly. Comparison is made between ultrasqueezed light and pulsed squeezed light, which can be viewed as a special limit of ultrasqueezing with many pump frequencies.

© 1988 Optical Society of America