Implementation of Cavity Squeezing of a Collective Atomic Spin

Understand

We squeeze unconditionally the collective spin of a dilute ensemble of laser-cooled rubidium-87 atoms using their interaction with a driven optical resonator.

• The shape and size of the resulting spin uncertainty region are well described by a simple analytical model [M.H.S., I.D.L., V.V., arXiv:0911.3936] through two orders of magnitude in the effective interaction strength, without free parameters.
• We deterministically generate states with up to 5.6(6) dB of metrologically relevant spin squeezing on the canonical rubidium-87 hyperfine clock transition.