Photothermal fluctuations as a fundamental limit to low-frequency squeezing in a degenerate optical parametric oscillator

Keisuke Goda*, Kirk McKenzie, Eugeniy E. Mikhailov, Ping Koy Lam, David E. McClelland, Nergis Mavalvala

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    25 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We study the effect of photothermal fluctuations on squeezed states of light through the photo-refractive effect and thermal expansion in a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO). We also discuss the effect of the photothermal noise in various cases and how to minimize its undesirable consequences. We find that the photothermal noise in the OPO introduces a significant amount of noise on phase squeezed beams, making them less than ideal for low-frequency applications such as gravitational wave (GW) interferometers, whereas amplitude squeezed beams are relatively immune to the photothermal noise and may represent the best choice for application in GW interferometers.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number043819
    JournalPhysical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
    Volume72
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2005

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