LAUSR

Abstract Generally, loss phenomena are known to affect the quantum properties of a light wave. This paper describes a quantum mechanical treatment of parametric amplification in an absorptive nonlinear medium. An expression of the quantum mechanical field operator in such a physical system is presented based on the Heisenberg equation, using which the quantum properties of traveling light suffering from medium absorption are quantitatively evaluated. Calculations using the obtained operator indicate that some degradation of noise performance is caused by the absorption. The influence of the absorption on the squeezing performance in phase-sensitive parametric amplification is also evaluated.