- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Observation of Rabi-oscillation-driven cyclical noise squeezing in active quantum dot ensembles

Ori Gabai1,*, Amnon Willinger1,*, Igor Khanonkin1,*, Vitalii Sichkovskyi2, Johann Peter Reithmaier2, and Gadi Eisenstein1,†

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: gad@technion.ac.il
PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 8, 043131 – Published 5 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7qbs-778n

Abstract

Squeezed light is usually generated using parametric processes in various nonlinear materials. Semiconductor lasers and optical amplifiers (SOAs) also offer nonlinearities, but they differ in that they add amplified spontaneous emission originating from population inversion, which represents a thermal state. Squeezing to below the vacuum level has been demonstrated in a semiconductor laser, and gain saturation in SOAs can likewise reduce field amplitude fluctuations to below the vacuum limit. Here, we demonstrate that Rabi oscillations in room-temperature quantum dot SOAs induced by short resonant pulses cause cyclical noise modification that repeats with every change of 2π in pulse area. Homodyne measurements reveal in those cases elliptical Wigner functions corresponding to displaced squeezed thermal states and in some cases those corresponding to squeezing below the vacuum level. At other pulse areas, the Wigner functions are circular representing displaced thermal states. This periodic behavior persists over two orders of magnitude in input pulse energy. Under specific bias and excitation conditions, we further observe a non-Gaussian Wigner function featuring two bright lobes. Such a Wigner function does not represent any known quantum state. It resembles though a Schrödinger catlike non-Gaussian state, and we speculate that the accompanying negativity is suppressed due to an approximately 10 dB optical output loss. This speculation is confirmed by a simulation. Notably, the emergence of this non-Gaussian state is itself periodic in excitation pulse energy.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (47)

  1. C. M. Caves, Quantum-mechanical noise in an interferometer, Phys. Rev. D 23, 1693 (1981).
  2. R. E. Slusher, L. W. Hollberg, B. Yurke, J. C. Mertz, and J. F. Valley, Observation of squeezed states generated by four-wave mixing in an optical cavity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2409 (1985).
  3. U. L. Andersen, T. Gehring, C. Marquardt, and G. Leuchs, 30 years of squeezed light generation, Phys. Scr. 91, 053001 (2016).
  4. J. Aasi, J. Abadie, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, C. Adams, T. Adams, P. Addesso, R. X. Adhikari, et al., Enhanced sensitivity of the LIGO gravitational wave detector by using squeezed states of light, Nat. Photon. 7, 613 (2013).
  5. R. E. Slusher and B. Yurke, Squeezed light for coherent communications, J. Lightwave Technol. 8, 466 (2002).
  6. H. P. Yuen, Communication and Measurement with Squeezed States (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg GmbH, 2004), pp. 227–261.
  7. I. Suleiman, J. A. H. Nielsen, X. Guo, N. Jain, J. Neergaard-Nielsen, T. Gehring, and U. L. Andersen, 40 km fiber transmission of squeezed light measured with a real local oscillator, Quantum Sci. Technol. 7, 045003 (2022).
  8. U. L. Andersen, J. S. Neergaard-Nielsen, P. van Loock, and A. Furusawa, Hybrid discrete- and continuous-variable quantum information, Nat. Phys. 11, 713 (2015).
  9. S. Takeda and A. Furusawa, Toward large-scale fault-tolerant universal photonic quantum computing, APL Photon. 4, 060902 (2019).
  10. R. W. Boyd, A. L. Gaeta, and E. Giese, Nonlinear Optics (Elsevier, Burlington, 2008), pp. 22–31.
  11. L.-A. Wu, H. Kimble, J. Hall, and H. Wu, Generation of squeezed states by parametric down conversion, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2520 (1986).
  12. C. McCormick, V. Boyer, E. Arimondo, and P. Lett, Strong relative intensity squeezing by four-wave mixing in rubidium vapor, Opt. Lett. 32, 178 (2007).
  13. J. Heersink, V. Josse, G. Leuchs, and U. L. Andersen, Efficient polarization squeezing in optical fibers, Opt. Lett. 30, 1192 (2005).
  14. K. Bergman and H. Haus, Squeezing in fibers with optical pulses, Opt. Lett. 16, 663 (1991).
  15. A. Bilenca and G. Eisenstein, On the noise properties of linear and nonlinear quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers: The impact of inhomogeneously broadened gain and fast carrier dynamics, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 40, 690 (2004).
  16. T. W. Berg and J. Mork, Saturation and noise properties of quantum-dot optical amplifiers, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 40, 1527 (2004).
  17. A. Bogoni, L. Poti, C. Porzi, M. Scaffardi, P. Ghelfi, and F. Ponzini, Modeling and measurement of noisy SOA dynamics for ultrafast applications, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 10, 197 (2004).
  18. Y. Yamamoto, S. Machida, and W. H. Richardson, Photon number squeezed states in semiconductor lasers, Science 255, 1219 (1992).
  19. S. Machida, Y. Yamamoto, and Y. Itaya, Observation of amplitude squeezing in a constant-current–driven semiconductor laser, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1000 (1987).
  20. J. Kitching, A. Yariv, and Y. Shevy, Room temperature generation of amplitude squeezed light from a semiconductor laser with weak optical feedback, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 3372 (1995).
  21. S. Zhao, S. Ding, H. Huang, I. Zaquine, N. Fabre, N. Belabas, and F. Grillot, Broadband amplitude squeezing at room temperature in electrically driven quantum dot lasers, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, L032021 (2024).
  22. J.-L. Vey and P. Gallion, Semiclassical model of semiconductor laser noise and amplitude noise squeezing. I. Description and application to Fabry-Perot laser, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 33, 2097 (1997).
  23. M. Shtaif and G. Eisenstein, Noise properties of nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers, Opt. Lett. 21, 1851 (1996).
  24. A. Capua, V. Mikhelashvili, G. Eisenstein, J. Reithmaier, A. Somers, A. Forchel, M. Calligaro, O. Parillaud, and M. Krakowski, Direct observation of the coherent spectral hole in the noise spectrum of a saturated InAs/InP quantum dash amplifier operating near 1550 nm, Opt. Express 16, 2141 (2008).
  25. M. Shtaif and G. Eisenstein, Experimental study of the statistical properties of nonlinearly amplified signals in semiconductor optical amplifiers, IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett. 9, 904 (2002).
  26. A. Bilenca and G. Eisenstein, Statistical noise properties of an optical pulse propagating in a nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifier, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 41, 36 (2005).
  27. A. Bilenca and G. Eisenstein, Fokker–Planck and Langevin analyses of noise accompanying the amplification of optical pulses in semiconductor optical amplifiers, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 22, 1632 (2005).
  28. G. Eisenstein, J. P. Reithmaier, A. Capua, O. Karni, A. K. Mishra, S. Bauer, and I. Khanonkin, Coherent light matter interactions in nanostructure based active semiconductor waveguides operating at room temperature, Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 041317 (2019).
  29. I. Khanonkin, O. Eyal, J. P. Reithmaier, and G. Eisenstein, Room-temperature coherent revival in an ensemble of quantum dots, Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 033073 (2021).
  30. A. Capua, O. Karni, G. Eisenstein, and J. P. Reithmaier, Rabi oscillations in a room-temperature quantum dash semiconductor optical amplifier, Phys. Rev. B 90, 045305 (2014).
  31. P. Borri, W. Langbein, S. Schneider, U. Woggon, R. Sellin, D. Ouyang, and D. Bimberg, Coherent light–matter interaction in InGaAs quantum dots: Dephasing time and optical Rabi oscillations, Phys. Status Solidi B 233, 391 (2002).
  32. M. Kolarczik, N. Owschimikow, J. Korn, B. Lingnau, Y. Kaptan, D. Bimberg, E. Schöll, K. Lüdge, and U. Woggon, Quantum coherence induces pulse shape modification in a semiconductor optical amplifier at room temperature, Nat. Commun. 4, 2953 (2013).
  33. H. Choi, V.-M. Gkortsas, L. Diehl, D. Bour, S. Corzine, J. Zhu, G. Höfler, F. Capasso, F. X. Kärtner, and T. B. Norris, Ultrafast Rabi flopping and coherent pulse propagation in a quantum cascade laser, Nat. Photon. 4, 706 (2010).
  34. J.-Z. Zhang and I. Galbraith, Rabi oscillations of ultrashort optical pulses in 1.55µm InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum-well amplifiers, J. Appl. Phys. 96, 922 (2004).
  35. E. Wigner, On the quantum correction for thermodynamic equilibrium, Phys. Rev. 40, 749 (1932).
  36. M. S. Kim, F. A. M. de Oliveira, and P. L. Knight, Properties of squeezed number states and squeezed thermal states, Phys. Rev. A 40, 2494 (1989).
  37. H. Jeong and T. C. Ralph, Transfer of nonclassical properties from a microscopic superposition to macroscopic thermal states in the high temperature limit, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 100401 (2006).
  38. M. Cosacchi, T. Seidelmann, J. Wiercinski, M. Cygorek, A. Vagov, D. E. Reiter, and V. M. Axt, Schrödinger cat states in quantum-dot-cavity systems, Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 023088 (2021).
  39. S. Banyoudeh and J. P. Reithmaier, High-density 1.54µm InAs/InGaAlAs/InP (100) based quantum dots with reduced size inhomogeneity, J. Cryst. Growth 425, 299 (2015).
  40. S. R. Deans, The Radon Transform and Some of Its Applications (Dover Publication Inc, Mineola, 2007).
  41. T. Septon, A. Becker, S. Gosh, G. Shtendel, V. Sichkovskyi, F. Schnabel, A. Sengül, M. Bjelica, B. Witzigmann, J. P. Reithmaier, and G. Eisenstein, Large linewidth reduction in semiconductor lasers based on atom-like gain material, Optica 6, 1071 (2019).
  42. M. Bjelica and B. Witzigmann, Optimization of 1.55µm quantum dot edge-emitting lasers for narrow spectral linewidth, Opt. Quantum Electron. 48, 110 (2016).
  43. W. H. Press, S. A. Teukolsky, W. T. Vetterling, and B. P. Flannery, Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing, 3rd ed. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2007).
  44. H. Vahlbruch, M. Mehmet, S. Chelkowski, B. Hage, A. Franzen, N. Lastzka, S. Goßler, K. Danzmann, and R. Schnabel, Observation of squeezed light with 10-dB quantum-noise reduction, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 033602 (2008).
  45. A. I. Lvovsky and M. G. Raymer, Continuous-variable optical quantum-state tomography, Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 299 (2009).
  46. A. I. Lvovsky and J. H. Shapiro, Nonclassical character of statistical mixtures of the single-photon and vacuum optical states, Phys. Rev. A 65, 033830 (2002).
  47. O. Karni, A. K. Mishra, G. Eisenstein, V. Ivanov, and J. P. Reithmaier, Coherent control in room-temperature quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers using shaped pulses, Optica 3, 570 (2016).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 8, 043131– Published 5 November, 2026
  • Received 8 May 2026
  • Accepted 14 October 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation