Quantum mechanics, which Prof. André Xuereb from the Department of Physics had already told Newspoint about, gives us extraordinary abilities. Of particular importance for precision measurements is squeezed light, which possesses the special quantum-mechanical property that it has less noise than ordinary light.
An invited commentary piece was penned by UM’s very own Prof. André Xuereb describing a major step towards the practical application of squeezed light, in the form of a device using optomechanical interaction to create squeezed light at room temperature.
Published on the top-ranking international physics journal, Nature Physics, and titled ‘Squeezing hots up’, the commentary outlines the significant advances made by a team of world-leading researchers from the United States in creating a source of squeezed light that promises greater applicability than previous devices.
Significantly, the new device could yield a bandwidth of potentially hundreds of kilohertz over which the squeezing is constant. The team also came up with a new technique, which they applied to this device, that allows them to directly measure squeezing in a light beam without the need to calibrate the shot noise level. These characteristics make it eminently suitable for use in physics experiments and future quantum technologies.
The significance of the work done by the team of researchers lies particularly in combining all characteristics of a practical and flexible squeezed light source into a single device.
The invited commentary piece can be found in its entirety online.