Quantum enhanced electro-optic sensor for E-field measurement.

Abstract

The measurement of intense E-field is a fundamental need in various research areas. An electro-optic (EO) sensor based on common path interferometer (CPI) is widely used due to its better temperature stability and controllability of optical bias. However, the small EO coefficient leads to poor sensitivity. In this paper, a quantum enhanced EO sensor is proposed by replacing the vacuum state in classical one with a squeezed-vacuum state. Theoretical analysis shows that the performance of the quantum enhanced EO sensor, including signal to noise ratio (SNR) and sensitivity, can always beat the classical one due to the noise suppression caused by the squeezed-vacuum state. Experimental results demonstrate that, there is still a 1.12dB quantum enhancement compared with the classical one when the degree of the squeezed-vacuum is 1.60dB. More importantly, except the increase of the EO coefficient or the optical power, the performance of the EO sensor can also be enhanced via quantum light source. Such a quantum enhanced EO sensor could be practically applied for the measurement of intense E-field.