Date Thesis Awarded

4-2019

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Physics

Advisor

Eugeniy Mikhailov

Committee Members

Seth Aubin

Chi-Kwong Li

Abstract

High precision optical detection is fundamentally limited by quantum noise. This limit can be bypassed with the use of squeezed states of light with modified quantum noise. We study squeezed states of light with a focus on optimization of squeezing generated via polarization self-rotation (PSR) in hot rubidium vapor. The goal of our research is to reduce quantum noise by optimizing cell temperature and beam shape of the input pump field. We find that computerized spatial optimization algorithms (combined with manual optimization of temperature and laser detuning) are successful in improving squeezing levels, with one spatial mask yielding over 1.0 dB of squeezing improvement under certain conditions. We have achieved quantum noise suppression of 2.3 ± 0.1 dB below shot noise.

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