Photon noise reduction by reflection from a movable mirror

Abstract

We study the statistics of photons reflected by a harmonically suspended mirror. The noise modification can be interpreted in terms of temporal redistribution of the photon flux. Due to radiation pressure, the mirror is displaced and a variable delay is applied to the photons. The statistical properties of the reflected light are studied by Monte Carlo simulation with a corpuscular photon model and by analytic derivation. In the latter derivation, the effect of thermal fluctuations is included. The results indicate that a movable mirror appears as a passive quantum-noise eater at frequencies about the mechanical eigenfrequency of the mirror suspension.