Classical structured light analogy of quantum squeezed state

Abstract

Much of the richness in nature arises due to the connection between classical and quantum mechanics. In advanced science, the tools of quantum mechanics was not only applied in microscopic description but also found its efficacy in classical phenomena, broadening the fundamental scientific frontier. A pioneering inspiration is substituting Fock state with structured spatial modes to reconstruct a novel Hilbert space. Based on this idea, here we propose the classical analogy of squeezed coherent state for the first time, deriving classical wave-packets by applying squeezed and displacement operators on free space structured modes. Such a generalized structured light not only creates new degrees of freedom into structured light, including tunable squeezed degree and displacement degree but also exhibits direct correlation between quadrature operator space and real space. Versatile generalized classical squeezed states could be experimentally generated by a simple large-aperture off-axis-pumped solid-state laser. On account of its tunablity, we initially put forward a blueprint using classical structured light, an analogy of squeezed states to realize super-resolution imaging, providing an alternative way to beat diffraction limit as well as opening an original page for subsequent applications of high-dimensional structured light, such as high-sensitive measurement and ultra-precise optical manipulation.