Generation of squeezed states of light in arbitrary complex amplitude transverse distribution

The squeezed state is important in quantum metrology and quantum information. The most effective generation tool known is the optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Currently, only the squeezed states of lower-order spatial modes can be generated by an OPO. However, the squeezed states of higher-order spatial modes are more useful for applications such as quantum metrology, quantum imaging, and quantum information. A major challenge for future applications is efficient generation. Here we use cascaded phase-only spatial light modulators to modulate the amplitude and phase of the incident fundamental mode squeezed state. This efficiently generates a series of squeezed higher-order Hermite–Gauss modes and a squeezed arbitrary complex amplitude distributed mode. The method may yield new applications in biophotonics, quantum metrology, and quantum information processing.