Characterizing non-polarization-maintaining highly nonlinear fiber toward squeezed-light generation

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential of non-polarization-maintaining highly nonlinear fiber for generating squeezed light, identifying key noise sources and modeling their impact on quantum light production.

Contribution

It characterizes the noise properties of HNLF, especially ZDW variation and polarization noise, providing insights into their effects on squeezed-light generation.

Findings

Significant zero-dispersion wavelength variation observed.

Excess polarization noise likely caused by nonlinear polarization-mode dispersion.

Polarization noise degrades Kerr squeezing but not four-wave mixing squeezing.

Abstract

Squeezed light, which is easily degraded by loss, could benefit from generation directly in optical fiber. Furthermore, highly nonlinear fiber could offer more efficient generation with lower pump power and shorter fiber lengths than standard single-mode fiber. We investigate non-polarization-maintaining highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) for squeezed-light generation by characterizing possible sources of excess noise, including its zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) variation and polarization noise. We find significant ZDW variation and excess polarization noise. We believe the polarization noise is from non-linear polarization-mode dispersion. We model this polarization noise and find that it is likely to degrade Kerr squeezing but not squeezing from four-wave mixing.