arXiv subjects

Fabien Bretenaker

Publications and source records attributed to Fabien Bretenaker.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Phase Sensitivity of Spectrally Multimode SU(1,1) Interferometers with Waveguide based Optical Parametric Amplifier

We present a comprehensive framework for evaluating the phase sensitivity of spectrally multimode SU(1,1) interferometers probed with a coherent-vacuum input, under both number and homodyne detections. The optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) are simulated using a periodically polled thin-film lithium niobate waveguide. The theoretical model incorporates the intrinsic multimode spectral nature of waveguide-based OPAs. Under the assumptions of identical OPAs and Schmidt-mode-independent phase shifts, we have shown that the multimode SU(1,1) interferometer is equivalent to a collection of independent single-mode interferometers in the Schmidt basis that operate in parallel, each associated with a Schmidt mode of the parametric process. We further present an optimized waveguide design based on asymmetric group-velocity matching to realize a practical OPA with nearly factorizable joint spectral amplitude (JSA). The Schmidt coefficients extracted from the numerically simulated JSA are incorporated into the theoretical model to evaluate the phase sensitivity. The results show that the sensitivity under a multimode condition depends strongly on the measurement scheme. For number detection, the degradation in sensitivity arises from the redistribution of the available nonlinear resource among the Schmidt modes, whereas homodyne detection exhibits an additional coherence penalty that can be substantially reduced by optimally shaping the local oscillator. Moreover, we show that the performance degradation can be to a large extent mitigated by optimizing the spectrum of the injected signal coherent state and, in the case of homodyne detection, the spectrum of the local oscillator. Altogether, this work provides a unified theoretical and numerical framework for analyzing and optimizing realistic multimode SU(1,1) interferometers with waveguide-based OPAs for quantum-enhanced sensing applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Sensitivity Evaluation of SU(1,1) Interferometers with Arbitrary Input Probe State and Homodyne Detections

We provide a general theoretical derivation of the phase sensitivity achieved by SU(1,1) interferometers under homodyne detection. The general expressions obtained accommodate arbitrary input states and include internal and external losses. In this systematic review, both full SU(1,1) interferometers with two parametric amplifiers and the truncated interferometers with only one parametric amplifier are examined. We investigate scenarios involving both single-output ports and joint homodyne detection, and consider parametric amplifiers with equal gains or with a boosted gain second amplifier. Our analytical formulation provides physical insight and understanding of the improvements in the sensitivity, which are shown to originate from noise reduction and/or signal amplification, depending on the configurations and practical implementations. Surprisingly, the configuration with single-output mode detection and parametric amplifiers with equal gains exhibits the highest robustness to very high internal losses. We finally apply this framework to a ubiquitous $|α,0\rangle$ input two-mode coherent probe state. This approach permits the comparison of different strategies and the optimization of the interferometer performance in the presence of losses. In particular, we determine which amplification and detection configurations provide the best performance, depending on the level of losses. This exemplifies how this general analytical approach provides a powerful tool to design quantum-enhanced interferometers and achieve optimal sensitivity with selected probe states and homodyne detection.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Collective-Coordinate Fluctuations of Driven-Dissipative Solitons

Fluctuations of nonequilibrium localized waves are shaped not only by direct stochastic forcing but also by deterministic transfer among coupled collective degrees of freedom. We develop a pathway-resolved stochastic collective-coordinate theory that makes this transfer explicit for stationary driven-dissipative solitons of the generalized Lugiato--Lefever equation with Raman response. The reduction yields a refined stationary phase-locking relation, providing a fixed point for the subsequent stochastic theory. Projecting field-level fluctuations onto four soliton coordinates: amplitude, frequency shift, temporal position, and global phase, yields a reduced Langevin model and, after linearization about a stable stationary state, an analytic power-spectral-density matrix. This framework separates direct stochastic injection from deterministic inter-coordinate conversion and thereby resolves how each observable spectrum is assembled from distinct internal fluctuation pathways. It shows that timing jitter is governed primarily by Gordon--Haus-type frequency-to-timing conversion, while phase noise is often dominated by amplitude-to-phase transfer rather than by direct phase diffusion. Raman response opens additional cascaded pathways, and the low-detuning hump in the intensity and phase spectra is traced to the driven response of an underdamped amplitude--phase subsystem preceding the breathing instability. Comparisons with stochastic simulations of both the reduced model and the full generalized Lugiato--Lefever equation show good agreement throughout most of the stable stationary single-soliton regime, with systematic deviations mainly near the Hopf boundary. The theory provides a general route for connecting internal fluctuation-transfer mechanisms of dissipative solitons to measurable noise observables.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Bridging gaps in Rydberg RF receivers using modulation transfer bandwidth enhancement

We optimize theoretically and experimentally the performances of the recently demonstrated modulation transfer protocol [D.-A. Trinh, K. V. Adwaith, M. Branco, A. Rouxel, S. Welinski, P. Berger, F. Goldfarb, and F. Bretenaker, Applied Physics Letters 125, 154001 (2024)] aiming at extending the bandwidth of quantum RF receivers based on hot Rydberg atoms. This optimization relies on tuning the parameters of the phase modulation of the coupling beam, which is converted by the nonlinear response of the atoms into an amplitude modulation of the probe beam. We develop a theoretical model to optimize both the modulation frequency and the modulation amplitude of the coupling beam, thereby maximizing the atomic response. Once optimized, the sensitivity to detuned RF fields of this modulation transfer protocol is measured and compared with that of the conventional protocol. This comparison shows that the new protocol permits a strong increase in the detection bandwidth. Indeed, it outperforms the usual one as soon as the RF signal to be measured is detuned by more than a few MHz. We illustrate the capability of this modulation transfer protocol to enhance the detection bandwidth by showing experimentally how it permits to bridge the gap between two Rydberg transitions separated by 166 MHz. In all cases, the experimental results are in good agreement with the simulations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Feedback-Driven Ground-State Search in Coupled Laser Arrays

Optimisation problems, which appear in numerous fields of science and industry, are challenging to solve even with modern supercomputers. Many such problems can be mapped onto ground-state searches of spin Hamiltonians, implemented on various physical platforms whose intrinsic dynamics are analogous to spin systems. However, the complex energy landscape of spin Hamiltonians often traps the system in local minima, preventing the system from reaching the ground-state (global minimum). We demonstrate an intrinsic feedback-driven annealing mechanism in class-B semiconductor laser arrays arising from the interplay of internal ($α$) and external ($η$) coupling. The instantaneous phase configuration self-modulates amplitude fluctuations, which act as an effective temperature, dynamically reshaping the potential and enabling the system to escape from local minima. Using a one-dimensional ring laser array, we analyze defect formation in the $α$-$η$ parameter space and identify an optimal regime achieving nearly 100% ground-state probability. Although both $α$ and $η$ are essential for the feedback loop, defect suppression results from modifying two competing timescales: amplitude stabilization (t_amp) and phase locking (t_phase), analogous to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. These timescales can be tuned independently via $α$ or $η$. Identical timescale ratios yield identical defect probabilities, confirming that relative timescales, not specific parameters, govern defect formation. Our findings establish internal feedback-driven annealing as a practical route to ground-state search in semiconductor laser arrays, providing a foundation for efficient and scalable laser-based spin simulators for tackling hard optimization problems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Mode-locking in a semiconductor photonic bandgap laser

Multimode lasers have a very complex dynamics, as expected when oscillators are nonlinearly coupled. Order emerges when the modes lock together; in this case the coherent superposition of the modes results into a periodic train of pulses or a nearly constant power output with a linearly chirped frequency, for instance. The first is promoted by a saturable absorber, or an equivalent physical mechanism, while the latter is connected to more subtle conditions, such as the fast dynamics of the gain. Here we consider the case of a multimode semiconductor laser with gain provided by quantum wells but without any saturable absorber. The cavity is designed to have a photonic bandgap and very low dispersion. We show, first in theory, that modes can lock together and generate a variety of waveforms which are not trains of pulses nor chirped continuous power waves. Mode locking is observed in experiments on a III-V/Silicon hybrid laser with the cavity made of a suitably tapered grating. Moreover, we find that the mode-locking beatnote is strongly dependent on the injected current: we reach more than 1 GHz modulation amplitude of the beatnote at a modulation frequency of 50 kHz. The behaviour of the laser is critically determined by the dispersion, which can be controlled by the photonic crystal structure. By scaling up the number of interacting modes, this laser source may offer an effective and extremely flexible way of generating waveforms à la carte.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Non-symmetrical vortex beam shaping in VECSEL laser arrays

We propose and numerically test a novel concept for asymmetric vortex beam generation in a Degenerate Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (DVECSEL). The method is based on a phase-locking ring array of lasers created inside a degenerate cavity with a binary amplitude mask containing circular holes. The diffraction engineering of the mask profile allows to control the complex coupling between the lasers. The asymmetry between different lasers is introduced by varying the hole diameters corresponding to different lasers. Several examples of masks with non-uniform or uniform circular holes are investigated numerically and analytically to assess the impact of non-uniform complex coupling coefficients on the degeneracy between the vortex and anti-vortex steady-states of the ring laser arrays. It is found that the in-phase solution always dominates irrespective of non-uniform masks. The only solution to make one particular vortex solution dominant over other possible steady-state solutions consists in imprinting the necessary phase shift among neighboring lasers in the argument of their coupling coefficients. We also investigate the role of the Henry factor inherent to the use of a semiconductor active medium in the probabilities to generate vortex solutions. Analytical calculations are performed to generalize a formula previously reported in Opt. Express 30, 15648 (2022) for the limiting Henry factor to cover the case of complex couplings.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Modulation transfer protocol for Rydberg RF receivers

We propose and demonstrate a modulation transfer protocol to increase the detection sensitivity of a Rydberg RF receiver to fields out of resonance from the transition between Rydberg levels. This protocol is based on a phase modulation of the control field used to create the Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) signal. The nonlinear wave-mixing of the multi-component coupling laser and the probe laser transfers the modulation to the probe laser, which is used for RF-field detection. The measurements compare well with semi-classical simulations of atom-light interaction and show an improvement in the RF bandwidth of the sensor and an improved sensitivity of the response to weak fields.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Spin noise spectroscopy of optical light shifts

Light induced non-equilibrium spin noise spectroscopy is theoretically and experimentally shown to be an efficient technique to reveal the structure and the coherent effects in the probed transition. Indeed, using metastable helium, the spin noise spectrum is shown to exhibit a dual-peak structure around the Larmor frequency. This previously unobserved feature is due to the light shifts of the involved levels and strongly depends on the probe power, detuning, and polarization orientation. Both numerical and analytical models reproduce very well the details of the split spin noise spectra: this technique thus allows a simple and direct measurement of the light shifts, and its polarization dependence permits to reveal the level structure in a non ambiguous manner.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

New method for residual amplitude modulation control in fibered optical experiments

When locking the frequency of a laser to an optical cavity resonance, the residual amplitude modulation (RAM), which accompanies the phase modulation necessary to build the error signal, is a major limitation to the frequency stability. We show that the popular method demonstrated by Wong and Hall to cancel this effect, based on the measurement of the RAM using an auxiliary detector, is limited in the case of optical setups exhibiting polarization dependent losses and an imperfect polarizer at the modulator output, such as guided-wave optical systems. We propose and demonstrate a new method, using a single photodetector, to generate the two error signals and demonstrate its usefulness in the case of fibered systems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Imaging through fog using quadrature lock-in discrimination

We report experiments conducted in the field in the presence of fog, that were aimed at imaging under poor visibility. By means of intensity modulation at the source and two-dimensional quadrature lock-in detection by software at the receiver, a significant enhancement of the contrast-to-noise ratio was achieved in the imaging of beacons over hectometric distances. Further by illuminating the field of view with a modulated source, the technique helped reveal objects that were earlier obscured due to multiple scattering of light. This method, thus, holds promise of aiding in various forms of navigation under poor visibility due to fog.

eess.IV↗

arXiv2021

Unveiling the Dynamics of Optical Frequency Combs from Phase-Amplitude Correlations

The noise dynamics of an Optical Frequency Comb (OFC) based on a mode-locked Ti-Sapphire laser is analyzed in terms of noise modes. A spectrally resolved multipixel homodyne detection enables the simultaneous measurement of the amplitude and phase noises of several optical frequency channels, from which the covariance matrices of the amplitude and phase quadratures of the laser field are calculated. The decomposition of these matrices into the four most significant time/frequency modes of the field enables the tracking of the origin of the noises and the correlations between the noise modes. In particular, the correlations between the amplitude and phase noises are measured. These measurements are well reproduced by a model taking into account the correlations between the CEO phase noise and the amplitude noise induced by the group velocity dispersion of the laser cavity.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Generalised expression of the noise figure of phase sensitive amplifiers for an arbitrary number of modes

Phase sensitive amplifiers (PSA), contrary to usual phase insensitive amplifiers (PIA), are in principle capable to achieve noiseless amplification, i.e. exhibit a quantum-limited noise figure (NF) of 0 dB. When implemented using four-wave mixing (FWM) in a nonlinear fiber, extra waves can be generated by undesired FWM processes, which may introduce extra input ports for vacuum fluctuations, thus potentially degrading the NF. In this situation, we give here a general analytical quantum derivation of the PSA NF, valid for an arbitrary number of nonlinearly coupled modes. This expression is usable as soon as a linear input-output relation can be found for the annihilation and creation operators of the involved modes. It predicts that the noise level depends on the number of interacting waves. We illustrate the usefulness of this expression in the case of six waves, corresponding to four interacting quantum modes. In this example the signal NF is degraded by 0.4 dB, compared to 10 dB obtained for PIA operation of the same scheme.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Dynamics of mode-locked nanolasers based on Hermite-Gaussian modes

The different dynamical behaviors of the Hermite-Gaussian (HG) modes of mode-locked nanolasers based on a harmonic photonic cavity are investigated in detail using a model based on a modified Gross-Pitaevskii Equation. Such nanolasers are shown to exhibit mode-locking with a repetition rate independent of the cavity length, which is a strong asset for compactness.The differences with respect to conventional lasers are shown to originate from the peculiar gain competition between HG modes, which is investigated in details. In the presence of a saturable absorber, the different regimes, i. e. Q-switching, Q-switched mode-locking, and continuous-wave (cw) mode locking, are isolated in a phase diagram and separately described. Mode-locking is found to be robust against phase-intensity coupling and to be achievable in a scheme with spatially separated gain and absorber.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Optimization of laser dynamics for active stabilization of DF--VECSELs dedicated to cesium CPT clocks

We report the implementation and performance of a double servo-loop for intensity and phase-difference active stabilization of a dual-frequency vertical external--cavity surface-emitting laser (DF-VECSEL) for coherent population trapping (CPT) of cesium atoms in the framework of compact atomic clocks. In--phase fully correlated pumping of the two laser modes is identified as the best scheme for intensity noise reduction, and an analytical model allows the optimization of the active stabilization strategy. Optical phase-locking the beat-note to a local oscillator leads to a phase noise level below -103~dBc/Hz at 100~Hz from the carrier. The laser contribution to the short-term frequency stability of the clock is predicted to be compatible with a targeted Allan deviation below $σ_y = 5\,\times 10^{-13}$ over one second.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Investigation of analog signal distortion introduced by a fiber phase sensitive amplifier

We numerically simulate the distortion of an analog signal carried in a microwave photonics link containing a phase sensitive amplifier (PSA), focusing mainly on amplitude modulation format. The numerical model is validated by comparison with experimental measurements. By using the well known two-tone test, we compare the situations in which a standard intensity modulator is used with the one where a perfectly linear modulator would be employed. We also investigate the role of gain saturation on the nonlinearity of the PSA. Finally, we establish the conditions, in which the signal nonlinearity introduced by the PSA itself can be extremely small.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2020

Investigation of the noise figure in degenerate dual-pump phase sensitive amplifier using a multi-wave model

A semi-classical 7-wave model is developed to investigate the noise performances of a degenerate dual-pump phase sensitive amplifier. This approach takes into account the transfer to the signal, through multiple four-wave mixing processes, of the vacuum fluctuations injected in the high-order waves. This effect leads to a degradation of the noise figure of the amplifier with respect to the 0 dB value predicted by the usual 3-wave model. However, it is proved that a careful choice of the fiber dispersion allows to use the high-order waves to enhance the signal gain without degrading the noise figure above 1 dB.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Mode-Locking of the Hermite-Gaussian Modes of a Nanolaser

Mode-locking is predicted in a nanolaser cavity forming an effective photonic harmonic potential. The cavity is substantially more compact than a Fabry-Perot resonator with comparable pulsing period, which is here controlled by the potential. In the limit of instantaneous gain and absorption saturation, mode-locking corresponds to a stable dissipative soliton, which it very well approximated by the coherent state of a quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator. This property is robust against non-instantaneous material response and non-zero phase-intensity coupling.

physics.optics↗