Polarization quantum properties in a type-II optical parametric oscillator below threshold

Abstract

We study the far-field spatial distribution of the quantum fluctuations in the transverse profile of the output light beam generated by a type-II optical parametric oscillator below threshold, including the effects of transverse walk-off. We study how quadrature field correlations depend on the polarization. We find spatial Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entanglement in quadrature-polarization components. For the far-field points not affected by walk-off there is almost complete noise suppression in the proper quadratures difference of any orthogonal polarization components. We show the entanglement of the state of symmetric, intense, or macroscopic, spatial light modes. We also investigate nonclassical polarization properties in terms of the Stokes operators. We find perfect correlations in all Stokes parameters measured in opposite far-field points in the direction orthogonal to the walk-off, while locally the field is unpolarized and we find no polarization squeezing. © 2003 The American Physical Society.