Squeezed States in Non-ideal Interferometers: The Effect of Aberrations

Abstract

We extend a previous study of the usefulness of squeezed states of light for noise reduction in a non-ideal interferometer to the case where fringe visibility that is less than unity is caused by non-absorptive processes such as aberrations or misalignment of the beams. The main differences and similarities between this system and our earlier study of an interferometer with unbalanced losses in both arms are presented and discussed. An expression is given for the minimum detectable phase change in this system, in the presence of squeezing, as a function of fringe visibility.