Amplification under the standard quantum noise limit.

Abstract

We show that a saturable amplifier can beat the "3 dB" quantum noise figure of linear amplifiers, approaching the ideal "0 dB" Heisenberg limit. Noise suppression is due to nonlinear saturation effects which cut off the high-intensity tail of the photon distribution. A Monte Carlo simulation of an actual semiconductor laser amplifier leads to a minimum noise figure of 0.51 dB, with a still sizable gain of 10.8 dB. The best performance corresponds to an output signal photon number which equals 0.7 times the saturation number.