Theory of Multimode Squeezed Light Generation in Lossy Media

Denis A. Kopylov1,2, Torsten Meier1,2, and Polina R. Sharapova1

1Department of Physics, Paderborn University, Warburger Straße 100, D-33098 Paderborn, Germany
2Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS), Paderborn University, Warburger Straße 100, D-33098 Paderborn, Germany

Find this paper interesting or want to discuss? Scite or leave a comment on SciRate.

Abstract

A unified theoretical approach to describe the properties of multimode squeezed light generated in a lossy medium is presented. This approach is valid for Markovian environments and includes both a model of discrete losses based on the beamsplitter approach and a generalized continuous loss model based on the spatial Langevin equation. For an important class of Gaussian states, we derive master equations for the second-order correlation functions and illustrate their solution for both frequency-independent and frequency-dependent losses. Studying the mode structure, we demonstrate that in a lossy environment no broadband basis without quadrature correlations between the different broadband modes exists. Therefore, various techniques and strategies to introduce broadband modes can be considered. We show that the Mercer expansion and the Williamson-Euler decomposition do not provide modes in which the maximal squeezing contained in the system can be measured. In turn, we find a new broadband basis that maximizes squeezing in the lossy system and present an algorithm to construct it.

► BibTeX data

► References

[1] D.N. Klyshko. ``Photons and nonlinear optics''. Routledge. (1988).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1201/​9780203743508

[2] Werner Vogel and Dirk-Gunnar Welsch. ``Quantum optics''. Wiley-VCH, Berlin. (2006).

[3] Mattia Walschaers. ``Non-Gaussian quantum states and where to find them''. PRX Quantum 2, 030204 (2021).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PRXQuantum.2.030204

[4] Carlton M. Caves. ``Quantum limits on noise in linear amplifiers''. Phys. Rev. D 26, 1817–1839 (1982).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevD.26.1817

[5] B. Huttner, S. Serulnik, and Y. Ben-Aryeh. ``Quantum analysis of light propagation in a parametric amplifier''. Phys. Rev. A 42, 5594–5600 (1990).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.42.5594

[6] Mikhail I. Kolobov. ``The spatial behavior of nonclassical light''. Rev. Mod. Phys. 71, 1539–1589 (1999).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​RevModPhys.71.1539

[7] Samuel L. Braunstein. ``Squeezing as an irreducible resource''. Phys. Rev. A 71, 055801 (2005).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.71.055801

[8] Wojciech Wasilewski, A. I. Lvovsky, Konrad Banaszek, and Czesław Radzewicz. ``Pulsed squeezed light: Simultaneous squeezing of multiple modes''. Phys. Rev. A 73, 063819 (2006).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.73.063819

[9] C. Fabre and N. Treps. ``Modes and states in quantum optics''. Rev. Mod. Phys. 92, 035005 (2020).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​RevModPhys.92.035005

[10] Michael G. Raymer and Ian A. Walmsley. ``Temporal modes in quantum optics: then and now''. Physica Scripta 95, 064002 (2020).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​1402-4896/​ab6153

[11] B. Brecht, Dileep V. Reddy, C. Silberhorn, and M. G. Raymer. ``Photon temporal modes: A complete framework for quantum information science''. Phys. Rev. X 5, 041017 (2015).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevX.5.041017

[12] Tiphaine Kouadou, F. Sansavini, M. Ansquer, J. Henaff, N. Treps, and V. Parigi. ``Spectrally shaped and pulse-by-pulse multiplexed multimode squeezed states of light''. APL Photonics 8, 086113 (2023).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1063/​5.0156331

[13] Laura Serino, Jano Gil-Lopez, Michael Stefszky, Raimund Ricken, Christof Eigner, Benjamin Brecht, and Christine Silberhorn. ``Realization of a multi-output quantum pulse gate for decoding high-dimensional temporal modes of single-photon states''. PRX Quantum 4, 020306 (2023).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PRXQuantum.4.020306

[14] Barak Dayan. ``Theory of two-photon interactions with broadband down-converted light and entangled photons''. Phys. Rev. A 76, 043813 (2007).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.76.043813

[15] P. Sharapova, A. M. Pérez, O. V. Tikhonova, and M. V. Chekhova. ``Schmidt modes in the angular spectrum of bright squeezed vacuum''. Phys. Rev. A 91, 043816 (2015).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.91.043816

[16] Jan Peřina. ``Coherence and dimensionality of intense spatiospectral twin beams''. Phys. Rev. A 92, 013833 (2015).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.92.013833

[17] P. R. Sharapova, O. V. Tikhonova, S. Lemieux, R. W. Boyd, and M. V. Chekhova. ``Bright squeezed vacuum in a nonlinear interferometer: Frequency and temporal Schmidt-mode description''. Phys. Rev. A 97, 053827 (2018).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.97.053827

[18] David Barral, Mattia Walschaers, Kamel Bencheikh, Valentina Parigi, Juan Ariel Levenson, Nicolas Treps, and Nadia Belabas. ``Quantum state engineering in arrays of nonlinear waveguides''. Phys. Rev. A 102, 043706 (2020).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.102.043706

[19] Andreas Christ, Benjamin Brecht, Wolfgang Mauerer, and Christine Silberhorn. ``Theory of quantum frequency conversion and type-II parametric down-conversion in the high-gain regime''. New Journal of Physics 15, 053038 (2013).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​1367-2630/​15/​5/​053038

[20] D. B. Horoshko, L. La Volpe, F. Arzani, N. Treps, C. Fabre, and M. I. Kolobov. ``Bloch-Messiah reduction for twin beams of light''. Phys. Rev. A 100, 013837 (2019).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.100.013837

[21] P. R. Sharapova, G. Frascella, M. Riabinin, A. M. Pérez, O. V. Tikhonova, S. Lemieux, R. W. Boyd, G. Leuchs, and M. V. Chekhova. ``Properties of bright squeezed vacuum at increasing brightness''. Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 013371 (2020).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevResearch.2.013371

[22] N. Quesada, G. Triginer, M. D. Vidrighin, and J. E. Sipe. ``Theory of high-gain twin-beam generation in waveguides: From Maxwell's equations to efficient simulation''. Phys. Rev. A 102, 033519 (2020).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.102.033519

[23] Carlton M. Caves and David D. Crouch. ``Quantum wideband traveling-wave analysis of a degenerate parametric amplifier''. Journal of the Optical Society of America B 4, 1535 (1987).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1364/​josab.4.001535

[24] Bruno Huttner and Stephen M. Barnett. ``Quantization of the electromagnetic field in dielectrics''. Phys. Rev. A 46, 4306–4322 (1992).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.46.4306

[25] T. Gruner and D.-G. Welsch. ``Green-function approach to the radiation-field quantization for homogeneous and inhomogeneous Kramers-Kronig dielectrics''. Phys. Rev. A 53, 1818–1829 (1996).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.53.1818

[26] Daniele Melati, Andrea Melloni, and Francesco Morichetti. ``Real photonic waveguides: guiding light through imperfections''. Advances in Optics and Photonics 6, 156 (2014).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1364/​aop.6.000156

[27] D.N. Klyshko, A.N. Penin, and B.F. Polkovnikov. ``Parametric luminescence and light scattering by polaritons''. JETP Letters 11, 5–8 (1970). url: http:/​/​jetpletters.ru/​ps/​0/​article_26042.shtml.
http:/​/​jetpletters.ru/​ps/​0/​article_26042.shtml

[28] Jon D. Swaim and Ryan T. Glasser. ``Squeezed-twin-beam generation in strongly absorbing media''. Phys. Rev. A 96, 033818 (2017).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.96.033818

[29] Andrei V. Rasputnyi, Denis A. Kopylov, Tatiana V. Murzina, and Maria V. Chekhova. ``Cascaded frequency up-conversion of bright squeezed vacuum: spectral and correlation properties''. Optics Letters 47, 766 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1364/​ol.448790

[30] Diana A. Antonosyan, Alexander S. Solntsev, and Andrey A. Sukhorukov. ``Effect of loss on photon-pair generation in nonlinear waveguide arrays''. Phys. Rev. A 90, 043845 (2014).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.90.043845

[31] L. G. Helt, M. J. Steel, and J. E. Sipe. ``Spontaneous parametric downconversion in waveguides: what's loss got to do with it?''. New Journal of Physics 17, 013055 (2015).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​1367-2630/​17/​1/​013055

[32] Markus Gräfe, Diana A. Antonosyan, Alexander S. Solntsev, Andrey A. Sukhorukov, and Alexander Szameit. ``Optical emulation of photon-pair generation in nonlinear lossy waveguides''. EPL (Europhysics Letters) 118, 54001 (2017).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1209/​0295-5075/​118/​54001

[33] Milica Banic, Luca Zatti, Marco Liscidini, and J. E. Sipe. ``Two strategies for modeling nonlinear optics in lossy integrated photonic structures''. Phys. Rev. A 106, 043707 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.106.043707

[34] Prem Kumar and Jeffrey H. Shapiro. ``Squeezed-state generation via forward degenerate four-wave mixing''. Phys. Rev. A 30, 1568–1571 (1984).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.30.1568

[35] P. Kolchin. ``Electromagnetically-induced-transparency-based paired photon generation''. Phys. Rev. A 75, 033814 (2007).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.75.033814

[36] C. H. Raymond Ooi, Qingqing Sun, M. Suhail Zubairy, and Marlan O. Scully. ``Correlation of photon pairs from the double Raman amplifier: Generalized analytical quantum Langevin theory''. Phys. Rev. A 75, 013820 (2007).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.75.013820

[37] S. Shwartz, R. N. Coffee, J. M. Feldkamp, Y. Feng, J. B. Hastings, G. Y. Yin, and S. E. Harris. ``X-ray parametric down-conversion in the Langevin regime''. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 013602 (2012).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevLett.109.013602

[38] C. H. Raymond Ooi and K. Dorfman. ``Quantum parametric double Raman oscillators with co- and counterpropagating fields: Relative intensity squeezing and spatial photon correlations''. Phys. Rev. A 106, 053705 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.106.053705

[39] Colin Vendromin and Marc M. Dignam. ``Simple way to incorporate loss when modeling multimode-entangled-state generation''. Phys. Rev. A 105, 063707 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.105.063707

[40] L. G. Helt and N. Quesada. ``Degenerate squeezing in waveguides: a unified theoretical approach''. Journal of Physics: Photonics 2, 035001 (2020).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​2515-7647/​ab87fc

[41] N. Quesada, L. G. Helt, M. Menotti, M. Liscidini, and J. E. Sipe. ``Beyond photon pairs—nonlinear quantum photonics in the high-gain regime: a tutorial''. Advances in Optics and Photonics 14, 291 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1364/​aop.445496

[42] Andreas Christ, Cosmo Lupo, Matthias Reichelt, Torsten Meier, and Christine Silberhorn. ``Theory of filtered type-II parametric down-conversion in the continuous-variable domain: Quantifying the impacts of filtering''. Phys. Rev. A 90, 023823 (2014).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.90.023823

[43] M. F. Melalkia, L. Brunel, S. Tanzilli, J. Etesse, and V. D'Auria. ``Theoretical framework for photon subtraction with non–mode-selective resources''. Phys. Rev. A 105, 013720 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.105.013720

[44] M. Houde and N. Quesada. ``Waveguided sources of consistent, single-temporal-mode squeezed light: The good, the bad, and the ugly''. AVS Quantum Science 5, 011404 (2023).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1116/​5.0133009

[45] Christian Weedbrook, Stefano Pirandola, Raúl García-Patrón, Nicolas J. Cerf, Timothy C. Ralph, Jeffrey H. Shapiro, and Seth Lloyd. ``Gaussian quantum information''. Reviews of Modern Physics 84, 621–669 (2012).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​revmodphys.84.621

[46] Emil Wolf. ``New theory of partial coherence in the space–frequency domain. Part I: spectra and cross spectra of steady-state sources''. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 72, 343–351 (1982).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1364/​JOSA.72.000343

[47] Leonard Mandel and Emil Wolf. ``Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics''. Cambridge University Press. (1995).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1017/​CBO9781139644105

[48] R. Simon, N. Mukunda, and Biswadeb Dutta. ``Quantum-noise matrix for multimode systems: U(n) invariance, squeezing, and normal forms''. Physical Review A 49, 1567–1583 (1994).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​physreva.49.1567

[49] Aruto Hosaka, Taiki Kawamori, and Fumihiko Kannari. ``Multimode quantum theory of nonlinear propagation in optical fibers''. Phys. Rev. A 94, 053833 (2016).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.94.053833

[50] Dmitri B. Horoshko. ``Generator of spatial evolution of the electromagnetic field''. Phys. Rev. A 105, 013708 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.105.013708

[51] Gardiner, Crispin and Zoller, Peter . ``Quantum Noise''. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg. (2004).

[52] Élie Gouzien, Sébastien Tanzilli, Virginia D'Auria, and Giuseppe Patera. ``Morphing supermodes: A full characterization for enabling multimode quantum optics''. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 103601 (2020).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevLett.125.103601

[53] Tatsuhiro Onodera, Edwin Ng, Chris Gustin, Niels Lörch, Atsushi Yamamura, Ryan Hamerly, Peter L. McMahon, Alireza Marandi, and Hideo Mabuchi. ``Nonlinear quantum behavior of ultrashort-pulse optical parametric oscillators''. Phys. Rev. A 105, 033508 (2022).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.105.033508

[54] Melissa A. Guidry, Daniil M. Lukin, Ki Youl Yang, and Jelena Vučković. ``Multimode squeezing in soliton crystal microcombs''. Optica 10, 694 (2023).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1364/​optica.485996

[55] Ravi P. Agarwal and Donal O’Regan. ``An introduction to ordinary differential equations''. Springer New York. (2008).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1007/​978-0-387-71276-5

[56] Matteo G. A. Paris, Fabrizio Illuminati, Alessio Serafini, and Silvio De Siena. ``Purity of Gaussian states: Measurement schemes and time evolution in noisy channels''. Phys. Rev. A 68, 012314 (2003).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.68.012314

[57] Alessio Serafini, Fabrizio Illuminati, Matteo G. A. Paris, and Silvio De Siena. ``Entanglement and purity of two-mode Gaussian states in noisy channels''. Physical Review A 69 (2004).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​physreva.69.022318

[58] John C. Butcher. ``Numerical methods for ordinary differential equations''. Wiley. (2008).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1002/​9780470753767

[59] Dominik Šafránek. ``Estimation of Gaussian quantum states''. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical 52, 035304 (2018).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​1751-8121/​aaf068

[60] Brajesh Gupt, Josh Izaac, and Nicolás Quesada. ``The Walrus: a library for the calculation of hafnians, Hermite polynomials and Gaussian boson sampling''. Journal of Open Source Software 4, 1705 (2019).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.21105/​joss.01705

[61] Martin Houde, Will McCutcheon, and Nicolás Quesada. ``Matrix decompositions in quantum optics: Takagi/​Autonne, Bloch-Messiah/​Euler, Iwasawa, and Williamson''. Canadian Journal of Physics 102, 497–507 (2024).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1139/​cjp-2024-0070

[62] Denis Kopylov. ``Python module for numerical simulation of multimode squeezed light generation in lossy media''. Zenodo (2025).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.5281/​zenodo.14754796

[63] T. Opatrný, N. Korolkova, and G. Leuchs. ``Mode structure and photon number correlations in squeezed quantum pulses''. Phys. Rev. A 66, 053813 (2002).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.66.053813

[64] Gianfranco Cariolaro and Gianfranco Pierobon. ``Reexamination of Bloch-Messiah reduction''. Phys. Rev. A 93, 062115 (2016).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.93.062115

[65] Gianfranco Cariolaro and Gianfranco Pierobon. ``Bloch-Messiah reduction of Gaussian unitaries by Takagi factorization''. Phys. Rev. A 94, 062109 (2016).
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1103/​PhysRevA.94.062109

Cited by

[1] Denis A. Kopylov, Michael Stefszky, Torsten Meier, Christine Silberhorn, and Polina R. Sharapova, "Spectral and temporal properties of type-II parametric down-conversion: The impact of losses during state generation", Physical Review Research 7 3, 033122 (2025).

[2] Xing Heng, Lingchen Zhang, Qingyun Yin, Wei Liu, Lulu Tang, Yueyang Zhai, and Kai Wei, "Quantum-Enhanced Sensing with Squeezed Light: From Fundamentals to Applications", Applied Sciences 15 18, 10179 (2025).

[3] Denis A. Kopylov, Torsten Meier, and Polina R. Sharapova, "Bipartite entanglement extracted from multimode squeezed light generated in lossy waveguides", APL Quantum 2 4, 046116 (2025).

[4] Dmitri B. Horoshko, Shivang Srivastava, Filip Sośnicki, Michał Mikołajczyk, Michał Karpiński, Benjamin Brecht, and Mikhail I. Kolobov, "Time-resolved second-order autocorrelation function of parametric down-conversion", Physical Review A 112 2, 023703 (2025).

[5] D. B. Horoshko and V. S. Shchesnovich, "Isoenergetic model for optical down-conversion and error-specific limits of the parametric approximation", Physical Review A 112 3, 033706 (2025).

[6] Emanuel Hubenschmid and Guido Burkard, "Time-domain field correlation measurements enable tomography of highly multimode quantum states of light", Communications Physics 9 1, 89 (2026).

[7] Nicolás Quesada, "What’s my phase again? Computing the vacuum-to-vacuum amplitude of quadratic bosonic evolution", Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Science 481 2327, 20250599 (2025).

[8] D. Scharwald and P. R. Sharapova, "Characterization of spatial Schmidt modes in high-gain SU(1,1) interferometers", Physical Review Research 8 3, 033139 (2026).

[9] Youngbin Kim, Seongjin Jeon, and Young-Ik Sohn, "Simulating quantum light in lossy microring resonators driven by strong pulses", Physical Review Applied 23 5, 054045 (2025).

[10] Emil R. Hellebek, Klaus Mølmer, and Anders S. Sørensen, "Characterization of the multimode nature of single-photon sources based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion", Physical Review A 110 2, 023728 (2024).

The above citations are from Crossref's cited-by service (last updated successfully 2026-08-09 22:26:20) and SAO/NASA ADS (last updated successfully 2026-08-08 15:05:43). The list may be incomplete as not all publishers provide suitable and complete citation data.

Could not fetch ADS cited-by data during last attempt 2026-08-09 22:26:20: cURL error 28: Operation timed out after 10002 milliseconds with 0 bytes received