Properties of the linearized quantum optical bus

A formalism is developed that allows one to calculate the propagation of quantum noise, technical noise, and signals through a linearized quantum optical bus, i.e., a complex composite multibeam optical quantum system. General expressions for the output squeezing, the correlation coefficient, and quantum correlation coefficient between output observables and the transfer coefficients are derived and discussed in detail. The total correlation is introduced as a measure of the overall correlation of a set of output quadratures. From its geometric interpretation a multidimensional uncertainty relation is derived. Direct quantum-state preparation (QSP) is introduced as a method complementary to the conventional, indirect QSP. The minimal variance achievable by direct QSP is shown to provide superior noise suppression, including quantum noise suppression, than the conditional variance provided by indirect QSP. As an application we calculate and discuss the properties of a balanced bus of beam splitters with squeezed vacua at the usually unused ports. An important experimental effect is imperfect beam mode match, which is shown to lead to dramatic effects. A theory is derived which quantitatively matches measurements. Analytic expressions for the imperfectly modematched squeezed-light beam splitter including detection losses are given. Finally, a direct method is used to calculate the input-output matrix for the multiport subthreshold degenerate optical parametric amplifier for arbitrary parametric and mirror coupling strengths and detuning. [S1050-2947(99)02101-0].