Experimental generation of amplitude squeezed vector beams

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an experimental method to generate amplitude squeezed high-order vector beams using a spatial light modulator, achieving complex polarization structures with reduced quantum noise, beneficial for quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible, low-loss technique for generating amplitude squeezed vector beams with arbitrary mode control using a spatial light modulator.

Findings

Achieved quantum noise reduction up to -0.9dB.

Generated Laguerre-Gauss modes with radial index up to 1 and azimuthal index up to 3.

Studied polarization structures via Stokes parameter measurements.

Abstract

We present an experimental method for the generation of amplitude squeezed high-order vector beams. The light is modified twice by a spatial light modulator such that the vector beam is created by means of a collinear interferometric technique. A major advantage of this approach is that it avoids systematic losses, which are detrimental as they cause decoherence in continuous-variable quantum systems. The utilisation of a spatial light modulator (SLM) gives the flexibility to switch between arbitrary mode orders. The conversion efficiency with our setup is only limited by the efficiency of the SLM. We show the experimental generation of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes with radial indices up to 1 and azimuthal indices up to 3 with complex polarization structures and a quantum noise reduction up to -0.9dB$\pm$0.1dB. The corresponding polarization structures are studied in detail by measuring the spatial distribution of the Stokes parameters.