Quantum fluctuations in a two-mode parametric oscillator

Abstract

We describe how a two-mode, above-threshold, optical parametric oscillator can generate nonclassical states of light with a large average number of photons: the fluctuation spectrum of the various fields is calculated, and several quantities are shown to have squeezed fluctuations. In particular, a perfect quantum noise suppression is predicted on the difference between the intensities of the two generated beams. We describe an experiment designed to demonstrate such an effect and show how it can be used to generate high-intensity amplitude-squeezed states.