Generation of two types of nonclassical optical states using an optical parametric oscillator with a PPKTP crystal

As important members of nonclassical states of light, squeezed states and entangled states are basic resources for realizing quantum measurements and constructing quantum information networks. We experimentally demonstrate that the two types of nonclassical optical states can be generated from an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) involving a periodically poled KTiOPO₄ crystal with a domain-inversion period of 51.7 μm, by changing the polarization of the pump laser. When a vertically polarized 671 nm laser is used to pump the OPO, the intra-cavity frequency-down-conversion with type-0 quasi-phase matching is realized and the output optical beam is a quadrature amplitude squeezed state of light at the wavelength of 1342 nm with the fluctuation of quadrature component of 3.17 dB below the quantum noise limit (QNL). If the pump laser is horizontally polarized, the condition of the type-II quasi-phase matching is satisfied and the output optical beam becomes Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled state of light with correlation variances of both quadrature amplitude-sum and quadrature phase-difference of 2.2 dB below the corresponding QNL.