IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 25, NO.

2, MARCH 1989 1371

Observation of 4.2K Equilibrium Noise Squeezing via a

Josephson-Parametric Amplifier

B. Yurke. P . G . Kaminsky, and R. E . Miller

AT&T Bell Laboratories
Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974

E . A. Whittaker
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, New Jersey 07030

A. D.Smith, A. H . Silver, and R . W. Simon

T R W Space & Technology Group
Redondo Beach. California 90278

ABS TRACT
We have observed the squeezing of 4.2K thermal noise using
a Josephson-parametric amplifier operated in the degenerate
mode at 19.4 GHz. A 42% reduction in the equilibrium noise
11. Squeezing
Amplitude component squeezing can be most readily
understood [ 101 by considering a quantum mechanical signal
field A having two frequency components, one oscillating at
U,,+ w, the other at wo - U ,

was observed. The amplifier has also been operated at 0.1K

with an excess noise of 0.28K referred to the amplifier’s input A = ale-i(w,,+w)t + a2e-i(wo--w)t + h.c., (1)
port. This is less than the vacuum fluctuation noise h d 2 k =
0.47K at the amplifier’s input. Recently the amplifier has been
where h.c. denotes hermitian conjugate. The annihilation
operated in a nonchaotic mode with a signal gain in excess of
operators a l and a2 for the modes oscillating at w,, + w and
16 dB.
wo - w satisfy the usual boson commutation relations:
Introduction
Squeezed states of the electromagnetic field for which the
noise in one component of the electric field has been reduced (2)
below the vacuum fluctuation noise level have been successfully
generated at optical frequencies 111. Such states can be used to
enhance the sensitivity of a number of measurement processes
Equation (2) can be arranged into the form
such as interferometry 121, modulation spectroscopy [31, and
absorption spectroscopy 141. A classical analog of quantum
noise squeezing, the squeezing of thermal equilibrium noise, is A(t) = Al cos(w,t+O) + A2 sin(w,t+@ (3)
also of interest as a useful noise reduction technique [5,61
particularly at the low frequencies where Weber-bar
where
gravitational radiation detectors operate. Because of their
potential utility, it is desirable to construct squeezed state
sources covering as large a range of the electromagnetic Al = (aleio+a$ e-is)e-iwt + h.c.
spectrum as possible. At microwave frequencies such states can (4)
be used to probe the performance of micro masers 171 or the A2 = i(aleis-aJ e-io)e-iw‘ + h.c. .
quantum behavior of nonlinear electronic circuits employing
Josephson junctions, for example.
The observables Al and A2 are the two amplitude components
W e are engaged in an effort to generate squeezed states at of the field. They are noncommuting operators satisfying the
microwave frequencies [8,91. We have recently succeeded in uncertainty relation
demonstrating thermal noise squeezing using a Josephson
parametric amplifier operated at 19.5 GHz. When operated at
4.2K the noise in one component of the amplifier’s output was
42% smaller than the 4.2K equilibrium noise entering the
amplifier’s input. Further, when operated at 0.1K an excess For the vacuum state IO> defined by a110> = a210> = 0 one
noise, i.e., noise that could not be accounted for by the has
fluctuation dissipation theorem from the measured loss, of
0.28K was measured. Since the vacuum fluctuation noise h d 2 k (AA,)* = ( A A , ) ~= 2 . (6)
is 0.47K we are optimistic about the prospect of generating
squeezed microwave radiation in which the fluctuations in one
amplitude component are less than the vacuum fluctuations. A field is said to be quantum mechanically squeezed when
Recently we have operated the amplifier nonchaotically with a or (AA2l2 is less than 2. Such a field has less
fluctuation in one of its amplitude components than the vacuum
power gain in excess of 16 dB. Before describing our
field.
measurements an introduction to how squeezing arises in
parametric amplification and how it is detected will be The amplitude components can be measured via a mixer
presented. whose local oscillator (LO) is locked to the frequency U,,. Let
the LO have the time dependence
0018-9464/89/0300-137 1$01.OO@ 1989 IEEE
1372
where 0 is now the local oscillator phase. The mixer's
intermediate frequency (if) output has the form
where the brackets denote averaging over a cycle of the carrier
frequency and K is a constant. With the choice Eq. (7) for the
LO, one sees from (3) that
that is, the if is proportional to Al. By adjusting the LO phase
0 properly any field component Al(!I) or A2(0) can be
+
measured. Regarding w0 w as the signal frequency and
wo - w as the image frequency, one sees from (4) that AI is a
superposition of the signal and image amplitudes. When
vacuum fluctuations enter the signal and image ports of the
mixer one has
This is the mixer shot noise level. When a squeezed field for
which < 2 enters the mixer, the if noise will be reduced
below the shot noise floor. The ability to reduce mixer noise
below the shot noise level is one of the more striking properties
of a squeezed electromagnetic field. This noise reduction arises
when the signal and image fluctuations are correlated. For
-
example, classically, if one had aleie -at edie then A I of
Eq. (4) would be zero.
The required correlations for a reduction of the fluctuations
of AI can in fact be established via a parametric amplifier. For
example, consider a three-photon parametric amplifier for which
the pump, signal, and idler, at frequencies up. a,, and w i
respectively satisfy
It has been known for some time that the signal and idler
outputs become highly correlated for such a device when the
gain becomes large and a number of noise reduction schemes
have been proposed to take advantage of this correlation 111.
These correlations are, in fact, of the right form to reduce the
fluctuations in the mixer if below the shot noise floor for some
suitable LO phase 0. In fact, letting A(t), of Eq. (31, denote
the input to a parametric amplifier and letting
denote the output field, one can show 1121 that in the small
signal approximation the output takes the form
provided the pump phase is chosen properly relative to the LO
phase. The gain C is given in terms of the power gain G of the
signal (G-1 is the signal to idler conversion gain) by
As can be seen in Eq. (13) the cos(w,t+B) amplitude
component has been amplified by a factor of G whereas the
sin(wot+O) component has been deamplified by a factor of G-I.
Hence, if vacuum fluctuations enter the parametric amplifier a
squeezed field leaves the parametric amplifier whose fluctuations
in one amplitude component are smaller than the vacuum
fluctuations by a factor of G-'. The fluctuations in the
quadrature component are of course larger than the vacuum
fluctuations, as required by the uncertainty relation Eq. ( 5 ) . In
general, squeezed state generators have a phase sensitive gain
similar to Eq. (13).
Having discussed ideal homodyne detection and squeezed
state generation via an ideal parametric amplifier we now move
on to describe our Josephson-parametric amplifier and the
detector system.
111. The Josephson-Parametric Amplifier
Recently there has been considerable success in operating
low noise parametric amplifiers 113-141. Our amplifier is a
variation of an rf SQUID parametric amplifier constructed by
Smith et al. 1141. The schematic of our rf SQUID parametric
amplifier is depicted in Fig. 1. Two Josephson junctions J are
employed in a dc SQUID configuration to form an effective
junction whose critical current can be varied via the control
lines +Ic and -Ic which couple flux between the junctions via
the small inductors L,. The device is operated in the negative-
resistance reflection mode in which incoming signals
propagating along the 1 R signal transmission line are amplified
and reflected back out along the same transmission line. The
1R impedance of the amplifier is transformed to 5 O n via a
four-stage impedance transformer fabricated on the same silicon
chip as the parametric amplifier. The amplifier was designed
with a nominal operating frequency of 20 GHz and a 3 dB
passband of 1 GHz. Details of the device parameters and the
structure of the impedance transformer have been published
elsewhere 191. Power is coupled onto and off of the chip
through SMA connectors followed by coax to waveguide
transitions.
PUMP
TRANSMISSION
LINE
50fl ci
SIGNAL
TRANSMISSION
LINE
Fig. 1 Circuit diagram for Josephson-parametric amplifier.

IV. Instrumentation
The instrumentation for data taking is schematically
displayed in Fig. 2. The local oscillator and pump are obtained
from the same microwave source (19.4 G H z source) via a 3 dB
coupler. Isolators I4 and 15 isolate the mixer and pump from
each other (AT). The pump is phase shifted relative to the
local oscillator via the voltage controlled phase shifter 4.
A diode switch S2 is used to turn the pump on and off. The
pump power is then fed into a frequency doubler D and then
through an attenuator (AT). The pump then travels into the
cryostat through WR-22 stainless steel waveguide. Before
entering the pump port of the Josephson-parametric amplifier
JPA the pump power is attenuated by 10 dB via a directional
coupler heat sunk to the still of a dilution refrigerator. The
thermal or quantum noise fed into the signal port of the JPA is
emitted by a variable temperature cold load T. The JPA and
cold termination T are heat sunk to the mixing chamber of a
dilution refrigerator and can be cooled to 0.1K. Probe signals
to measure the classical gain and loss of the parametric
amplifier are weakly coupled into the JPA through a 40 dB
attenuator. A waveguide switch S1 allows one to switch
between the JPA and a short in order to make accurate
reflection measurements. The amplified or squeezed microwaves
leaving the signal port are directed by a cryogenic circulator C
through a low pass filter L P F which blocks pump power. The
signal then passes through three cryogenic isolators heat sunk to
the still. These isolators provide 68 dB isolation from noise
propagating into the cryostat from the mixer M. The signal
leaves the cryostat through WR-22 stainless steel waveguide
and then enters the rf port of the mixer. A mixer probe signal
is also coupled into the rf port of the mixer through a 20 dB
coupler. This probe signal allows the detector system gain to be
monitored for possible saturation effects which could mimic
squeezing. The mixer itself has a dc to 1 G H z if frequency.
The if produced by the mixer is amplified and fed to a spectrum
analyzer. Since the LO is phase locked to the pump by virtue
of being generated from the same microwave source, the mixer
& SIGNAL Q reflection coefficient of the JPA when the pump is off, and 4 is
3CQK
MIXER
PROBE
v gain. The pump-off spectrum so^ is obtained by setting
c F(4) = 1 in Eq. (16). Equations (15) - (17) are the
A
4.2K
I termination and the JPA are at the same temperature T, then
Fig. 2 Schematic of instrumentation used in data taking.
1373
performs homodyne detection of the parametric amplifier
output. Further details of the instrumentation has been
published elsewhere [91.
V. Measurement Techniques
In Section 11, for clarity and simplicity, ideal homodyne
detection and parametric amplification in a two-mode picture
were discussed. The actual experimental situation is quite far
from this ideal. The detector system noise is quite large
compared to 4.2K equilibrium noise. In order to measure small
changes in the noise level reported by the spectrum analyzer, a
lock-in detection technique was employed in which the pump
was switched on and off via switch S2 of Fig. 2. The resulting
differenced power spectrum (in dB's) at if frequency U is
where k is Boltzmann's constant and S,,(v) and S,a(u) are the
power spectra of the signal as seen by an ideal homodyne
detector a t the output port of the JPA when the pump is on or
off respectively. The loss vd suffered by the signal propagating
from the signal port of the JPA to the mixer was measured to
be vd = 0.28 k 0.02 or 5.5 dB. The noise temperature Td for
the mixer-spectrum analyzer detector system was measured to
be 660 k 20K by using a variable temperature termination
cycled between 300K and 77K.
The power spectrum So,(u) for a lossy JPA is given by 191
where Sin(v) is the power spectrum seen by an ideal homodyne
detector at the input port of the JPA and SlosS(v) is the power
spectrum of the noise generated by the JPA losses, 11 is the
the relative phase between the local oscillator and pump. The
function
F(4) = 2G - 1 + 2G1'2(G-1)''2~~~2~ (17)
describes the phase-sensitive gain of the JPA as seen by a
homodyne detector. G is the ratio of the power of a probe
signal when the pump is on to that when the pump is off, i.e.,
qG is the signal power gain. G is a particularly convenient
quantity to measure and will be referred to as the parametric
generalizations of the ideas discussed in Section I1 appropriate
for our experimental situation.
When an intense probe signal at frequency U, +
v, where uo
is the LO frequency, is injected into the input of the JPA,
Eq. (15) reduces to
Thus F(4), G,and 4 can be measured with a classical probe.
When only thermal equilibrium noise is present and the cold
(since U < < U,)
1374

The possibility that detector saturation could be affecting

Equations (15) - (19) constitute the theory used to compare
with the experiment.
VI. Observations
The 4.2K equilibrium noise measurements were made using
1 Torr of 4He exchange gas to hold all the cryogenic microwave
components at the same temperature. Figure 3 shows the
experimentally measured F(4) (black data points). By fitting
Eqs. (17) and (18) to this data (solid curve) one obtains a value
of 1.48 for G. Also using the waveguide switch S1 the
reflection loss was measured to be 0.38 (4.2 dB loss). Figure 4
shows the noise data associated with the F(4) data of Fig. 3.
This noise data was taken at an if frequency of v = 70 MHz.
The solid curve in Fig. 3 is a comparison of theory, Eqs. (15) -
(17) and (191, with the data. There are no adjustable
parameters since G , 7 , 4, T,qd, and T d are all independently
measured. From the observed maximum noise reduction AS =
3.7 X dB, a drop AT = (Td/qd)(l- 10Ms/lo)of 1.8K below
the 4.2K equilibrium noise floor can be inferred. This
corresponds to a 42% squeezing of the equilibrium noise.
the measurements was ruled out in a separate experiment in
which a probe signal was injected into the mixer at a frequency
offset from the LO by 55.6 MHz to monitor the mixer gain
while the JPA's noise was measured at an if frequency of
70 MHz. The mixer gain remained constant to within
25 x lov4 dB while the noise level AS(v) exhibited
3x dB squeezing.
That the pump-off noise floor is the 4.2K equilibrium noise
floor was demonstrated by cooling the JPA and the cold
termination T to 0.1K. The JPA was adjusted for a gain G of
1.60 and a reflection loss 7 of 0.50 was measured. The phase 4
was adjusted for a maximum gain. The expected AS from
Eqs. (15) - (17) and (19) is 1.92 x dB. The measured AS
was (2.82 f 0.04) x indicating an excess noise of
(9.0 2 0.4) x dB or 0.44 f 0.02K. When referred to the
JPA's input (by dividing by q[F(O)-ll) one obtains 0.28K.
When viewed as noise coupled into the cryostat from the
outside, this noise contributes 6% to the 4.2K equilibrium noise.
Hence, the y-axis zero of Fig. 4 is the 4.2K equilibrium noise
floor to within 6%.
Recently we have installed low noise HEMT FET amplifiers
operating at 4.2K into the cryostat. The detector system noise
temperature was improved by an order of magnitude.

'4 Unfortunately, feedthrough along bias lines prevented us from

demonstrating quantum noise squeezing. However, a study of
excess noise both below and above threshold was carried out.
Figure 5 shows the difference PN between the pump on and the
pump off noise power divided by G-1 plotted as a function of
the parametric gain G. The figure thus shows the behavior of
the amplifier's output referred to the input as a function of the
amplifier's gain. A reflection loss of 4 dB was measured. The
filled circles represent data taken with the cold termination at
0.2K, the open circles are data taken with the cold termination
at 1K. The arrow indicates the direction of increasing pump
power. The figure shows that signal power gains 7G in excess
of 16 dB can be achieved before the noise to gain ratio begins to
rise as one approaches and goes above the threshold for
oscillation. Although the data qualitatively follows the general
-loo 60 120 180 240 300 360
LO PHASE (DEGREES)

Fig. 3 Phase sensitive gain F(4) as a function of LO phase.

Open circles taken with pump off establish the zero. "Or

1.5r

0
05

, I 1 I 1 I

Fig. 5 Output noise referred to input as a function of

I
60 120 180 240 300 360
parametric gain G. Data taken at 0.2K are
LO PHASE (DEGREES) represented as filled circles. Data taken at 1K are
represented as open circles. Hetrodyne detection was
Fig. 4 Filled circles are the output noise of the parametric employed to take the data. An if of 800 MHz,, an
amplifier with pump on relative to the output noise LO of 19.889 GHz, and a pump of 38.6 GHz were
with the pump off (open circles). used.
 1375

trend of a theory for excess noise proposed by Bryant et al. [151, [141 A. D. Smith, R. D. Sandell, J. F. Burch, and A. H.
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adjustments of bias currents we have, however, seen noise
hopping of the kind described by Bryant et al. 1151 over a
small range of pump power settings.

VII. Conclusions
We have measured a 1.8K drop (42% squeezing) in the
noise emitted from a Josephson-parametric amplifier. This drop
is relative to a pump-off noise level which we have established to
be 4.2K equilibrium noise to within 6%. Further, we have
demonstrated that there is no significant detector saturation
effect. The amplifier can be operated in a nonchaotic manner
with signal power gains in excess of 16 dB.

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