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Detection of 15 dB Squeezed States of Light and their Application for the Absolute Calibration of Photoelectric Quantum Efficiency

Henning Vahlbruch, Moritz Mehmet, Karsten Danzmann, and Roman Schnabel
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 110801 – Published 6 September 2016
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Abstract

Squeezed states of light belong to the most prominent nonclassical resources. They have compelling applications in metrology, which has been demonstrated by their routine exploitation for improving the sensitivity of a gravitational-wave detector since 2010. Here, we report on the direct measurement of 15 dB squeezed vacuum states of light and their application to calibrate the quantum efficiency of photoelectric detection. The object of calibration is a customized InGaAs positive intrinsic negative (p-i-n) photodiode optimized for high external quantum efficiency. The calibration yields a value of 99.5% with a 0.5% (k=2) uncertainty for a photon flux of the order 1017s1 at a wavelength of 1064 nm. The calibration neither requires any standard nor knowledge of the incident light power and thus represents a valuable application of squeezed states of light in quantum metrology.

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  • Received 15 June 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.110801

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

General PhysicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical

Synopsis

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A Tight Squeeze

Published 6 September 2016

Researchers have created quantum states of light whose noise level has been “squeezed” to a record low.

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Authors & Affiliations

Henning Vahlbruch1,*, Moritz Mehmet1,†, Karsten Danzmann1, and Roman Schnabel1,2

  • 1Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Callinstraße 38, 30167 Hannover, Germany
  • 2Institut für Laserphysik and Zentrum für Optische Quantentechnologien, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany

  • *henning.vahlbruch@aei.mpg.de
  • moritz.mehmet@aei.mpg.de

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Issue

Vol. 117, Iss. 11 — 9 September 2016

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