SQUEEZED STATES OF THE RADIATION-FIELD

This chapter focuses on various aspects of squeezed states, possible sources of squeezing, and the applications of squeezed states. The chapter reviews the past work and the current status of squeezed states. It discusses different kinds of squeezing and some of their properties. In recent years, a new class of quantum states, known as “squeezed states,” has drawn a great deal of interest, both theoretically and experimentally. On the experimental side, a number of groups have been actively involved in the actual generation of squeezed states. In a landmark experiment, Slusher et al. (1985) generated for the first time a squeezed state of the radiation field in which a 7% noise reduction below the vacuum level in one of the quadratures of the field was observed. The chapter also discusses the application of squeezed states to physical systems and describes two experiments—namely, the first by Slusher et al. (1985) in which the squeezed state was produced and the second one by Wu et al. (1987) in which maximum squeezing has been observed so far. © 1991, Academic Press Inc. All rights reserved.