Parametric Amplification and Noise Squeezing in Room Temperature Atomic Vapors

We report on the use of parametric excitation to coherently manipulate the collective spin state of an atomic vapor at room temperature. Signatures of the parametric excitation are detected in the ground-state spin evolution. These include the excitation spectrum of the atomic coherences, which cont...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2019-07, Vol.123 (3), p.033601-033601, Article 033601
Main Authors: Guarrera, V, Gartman, R, Bevilacqua, G, Barontini, G, Chalupczak, W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplification
Attenuation
Compressing
Excitation spectra
Magnetic measurement
Mechanical oscillators
Noise
Performance enhancement
Quadratures
Room temperature
Signal processing
Signal to noise ratio
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Summary:We report on the use of parametric excitation to coherently manipulate the collective spin state of an atomic vapor at room temperature. Signatures of the parametric excitation are detected in the ground-state spin evolution. These include the excitation spectrum of the atomic coherences, which contains resonances at frequencies characteristic of the parametric process. The amplitudes of the signal quadratures show amplification and attenuation, and their noise distribution is characterized by a strong asymmetry, similar to those observed in mechanical oscillators. The parametric excitation is produced by periodic modulation of the pumping beam, exploiting a Bell-Bloom-like technique widely used in atomic magnetometry. Notably, we find that the noise squeezing obtained by this technique enhances the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements up to a factor of 10, and improves the performance of a Bell-Bloom magnetometer by a factor of 3.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.033601