Generation and Characterization of Multimode Quantum Frequency Combs

Abstract

Multimode nonclassical states of light are an essential resource in quantum computation with continuous variables, for example, in cluster state computation. We report in this Letter the first experimental evidence of a multimode nonclassical frequency comb in a femtosecond synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator. In addition to a global reduction of its quantum intensity fluctuations, the system features quantum correlations between different parts of its frequency spectrum. This allows us to show that the frequency comb is composed of several uncorrelated eigenmodes having specific spectral shapes, two of them at least being squeezed, and to characterize their spectral shapes.