Squeezed light from a levitated nanoparticle at room temperature

Understand

Quantum measurements of mechanical systems can produce optical squeezing via ponderomotive forces.

• Its observation requires high environmental isolation and efficient detection, typically achieved by using optical cavities and cryogenic cooling.
• Here we realize these conditions by measuring the position of an optically levitated nanoparticle at room temperature and without the overhead of an optical cavity.
• We use a fast heterodyne detection to reconstruct simultaneously orthogonal optical quadratures, and observe a noise reduction of $9\%\pm0.5\%$ below shot noise.