Welcome to the website of the Non-linear and Quantum Optics Research Group at “Istituto Nazionale di Ottica”
Research Activities
Squeezed light via cascaded quadratic processes
Squeezed light is a key resource for the implementation of quantum information protocols, as well as for pushing the precision limit of measurements below the shot noise limit, and represents a valuable source for fundamental testes on quantum mechanics. A squeezed state is defined by the reduction of the uncertainty on one observable below the corresponding uncertainty on the vacuum state, at the expense of an increased uncertainty on the conjugate observable. In Parametric Downconversion processes occurring in χ(2) nonlinear media, Twin Beams (TBs) can be generated which are squeezed in their intensity difference. We produce TBs by pumping a Lithium Niobate crystal with a laser @1064 nm, inducing a second harmonic generation @532 nm, which is efficiently downconverted in sidebands around the pumping wavelength, being the crystal placed in a cavity resonant for both the pump and second harmonic. We measured the squeezing level of the beams up to -5 dB.
Higher order modes squeezing
Coming soon.
People
Iolanda Ricciardi
Dr. Iolanda Ricciardi received Physics Degree cum laude in 2002 and PhD in 2007 at Università di Napoli Federico II. During the PhD activity, she participated to the Virgo Project for gravitational wave detection with an experimental study on innovative seismic sensors based on optical resonators (associate scientist at Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare).
In 2007 she joined INO as a post-doc fellow, focusing on the realization of a cw ultraviolet laser source through nonlinear frequency mixing. In 2010 she became a research scientist, and kept working on the development of highly coherent laser sources, by means of intra-cavity nonlinear generation processes. Among her achievements, she contributed to the realization of a narrow-linewidth optical parametric oscillator in the MIR region for precision molecular spectroscopy, to the experimental demonstration of optical frequency combs in quadratic media, and to the theoretical modelling of the temporal and spectral dynamics of light in nonlinear optical resonators.
IR currently leads the Nonlinear and Quantum Optics Lab. Her ongoing research is devoted to frequency comb formation by cavity-enhanced second-harmonic generation systems, generation of nonclassical states of light, nonlinear interferometry at Heisenberg limit. She participated in several national and international projects, and is co-author of more than 90 publications on ISI-journals and book chapters.
e-mail: iolanda.ricciardi@ino.cnr.it
Salvatore Castrignano
Is a theoretician diguised as an experimentalist, or an experimentalist with a theoretical nuance. All he knows is what he’s not.
He graduated in Physics from “Federico II” University of Naples inn 2013, then he moved to Heidelberg (Germany) to enrol in a joint PhD program run by the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institut for Nuclear Physics. There he defended a thesis about non-invasive measurement of Quantum Correlations in condensed matter systems via X-ray scattering.
In 2022 he got a postdoc position at the Optical Sensors Lab of CNR-INO and since 2023 he’s a researcher by the Non-linear and Quantum Optics Lab. His research interests and activities are the generation of squeezed light via second order processes, the theory and practice of optical resonators and the foundations of quantum and probability theory.
e-mail: salvatore.castrignano@cnr.it
Pasquale Bosso
He was awarded his Bachelor degree in Physics at the Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” in 2010 with a thesis on cosmological inflation under the supervision of prof. Salvatore Capozziello. Subsequently, he obtained his M.Sc. degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” in 2013. He wrote his thesis on light propagation in cosmological space-time at the Universität Bielefeld, Germany, under the joint supervision of Prof. Dr. Dominik J. Schwarz (Universität Bielefeld) and Prof. Alessandro Melchiorri (Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”). In January 2015, he enroled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Lethbridge under the supervision of Prof. Saurya Das, defending his thesis in 2017. The topic of the thesis was quantum gravity phenomenology, with a specific focus on deformations of the quantum position-momentum commutation relation, known as generalized uncertainty principle. In 2018, he taught two full courses at the University of Lethbridge as a sessional lecturer before moving to León, Guanajuato, México, for his PostDoc at the Universidad de Guanajuato. Then, in 2019, as an Assistant Professor, he moved back to Lethbridge where he continued teaching and working on quantum gravity phenomenology. In 2022, he returned in Italy with a PostDoc at the Università degli studi di Salerno, where he continued his research activity. Finally, in 2024, he joined the Non-linear and Quantum Optics Lab of INO-CNR in Pozzuoli as a PostDoc.
e-mail: pasquale.bosso@ino.cnr.it
List of Publications
- Quantum correlated twin beams in cascaded optical parametric oscillator
Castrignano S., Ricciardi I., Maddaloni P., De Natale P., Wabnitz S., De Rosa M.
SPIE Proceedings 13004, Nonlinear Optics and Applications, 130040L, 2024 - Observation of quantum-correlated twin beams in cascaded nonlinear interactions
Castrignano S., Ricciardi I., Maddaloni P., De Natale P., Wabnitz S., De Rosa M.
Optics Letters 49, 1733-1736, 2024 - Optical frequency combs in dispersion-controlled doubly resonant second-harmonic generation
Ricciardi I., Maddaloni P., De Natale P., Erkintalo M., Hansson T., Arie A., Wabnitz S., De Rosa M.
Optics Express 30, 45694-45704, 2022 - Absolute frequency metrology of buffer-gas-cooled molecular spectra at 1 kHz accuracy level
Aiello R., Di Sarno V., Delli Santi M. G., De Rosa M., Ricciardi I., De Natale P., Santamaria L., Giusfredi G., Maddaloni P.
Nature Communications 13, 7016, 2022 - Lamb-dip saturated-absorption cavity ring-down rovibrational molecular spectroscopy in the near-infrared
Aiello R., Di Sarno V., Delli Santi M. G., De Rosa M., Ricciardi I., Giusfredi G., De Natale P., Santamaria L., Maddaloni P.
Photonics Research 10, 1803-1809, 2022 - Optical Frequency Combs in Quadratically Nonlinear Resonators
Ricciardi I., Mosca S., Parisi M., Leo F., Hansson T., Erkintalo M., Maddaloni P., De Natale P., Wabnitz S., De Rosa M.
Micromachines 11, 230-1, 230-22, 2020 - Modulation Instability Induced Frequency Comb Generation in a Continuously Pumped Optical Parametric Oscillator
Mosca S., Parisi M., Ricciardi I., Leo F., Hansson T., Erkintalo M., Maddaloni P., De Natale P., Wabnitz S., De Rosa M.
Physical Review Letters 121, 093903-1 093903-6, 2018 - Singly resonant second-harmonic-generation frequency combs
Hansson T., Leo F., Erkintalo M., Coen S., Ricciardi I., De Rosa M., Wabnitz S.
Physical Review A 95, 013805-1 013805-9, 2017 - AlGaAs waveguide microresonators for efficient generation of quadratic frequency combs
Parisi M., Morais N., Ricciardi I., Mosca S., Hansson T., Wabnitz S., Leo G., De Rosa M.
Journal Of The Optical Society Of America B-optical Physics 34, 1842-1847, 2017 - Direct generation of optical frequency combs in χ(2) nonlinear cavities
Mosca S., Ricciardi I., Parisi M., Maddaloni P., Santamaria L., De Natale P., De Rosa M.
Nanophotonics 5, 316-331, 2016 - Walk-Off-Induced Modulation Instability, Temporal Pattern Formation, and Frequency Comb Generation in Cavity-Enhanced Second-Harmonic Generation
Leo F., Hansson T., Ricciardi I., De Rosa M., Coen S., Wabnitz S., Erkintalo M.
Physical Review Letters 116, 033901-1 033901-6, 2016 - Comb-assisted cavity ring-down spectroscopy of a buffer-gas-cooled molecular beam
Santamaria L., Di Sarno V., De Natale P., De Rosa M., Inguscio M., Mosca S., Ricciardi I., Calonico D., Levi F., Maddaloni P.
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 18, 16715- 16720, 2016 - Frequency-comb formation in doubly resonant second-harmonic generation
Leo F., Hansson T., Ricciardi I., De Rosa M., Coen S., Wabnitz S., Erkintalo M.
Physical Review A, 043831-1 043831-12, 2016 - Single envelope equation modeling of multi-octave comb arrays in microresonators with quadratic and cubic nonlinearities
Hansson T., Leo F., Erkintalo M., Anthony J., Coen S., Ricciardi I., De Rosa M., Wabnitz S.
Journal Of The Optical Society Of America B-optical Physics 33, 1207-1215, 2016 - Frequency comb generation in quadratic nonlinear media
Ricciardi I., Mosca S., Parisi M., Maddaloni P., Santamaria L., De Natale P., De Rosa M.
Physical Review A 91, 063839-1, 063839-10, 2015 - Low-temperature spectroscopy of the 12C2H2 (ν1 + ν3) band in a helium buffer gas
Santamaria L., Di Sarno V., Ricciardi I., De Rosa M., Mosca S., Santambrogio G., Maddaloni P., De Natale P.
Astrophysical Journal 801, 50-1, 50-6, 2015 - Sub-kilohertz linewidth narrowing of a mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator idler frequency by direct cavity stabilization
Ricciardi I., Mosca S., Parisi M., Maddaloni P., Santamaria L., De Natale P., De Rosa M.
Optics Letters 40, 4743- 4746, 2015 - Assessing the time constancy of the proton-to-electron mass ratio by precision ro-vibrational spectroscopy of a cold molecular beam
Santamaria L., Di Sarno V., Ricciardi I., Mosca S., De Rosa M., Santambrogio G., Maddaloni P., De Natale P.
Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy 300, 116-123, 2014 - High-speed multi-THz-range mode-hop-free tunable mid-IR laser spectrometer
Courtois J., Bouchendira R., Cadoret M., Ricciardi I., Mosca S., De Rosa M., De Natale P., Zondy J.-J.
Optics Letters 38, 1972-1974, 2013 - Phase noise analysis of a 10 Watt Yb-doped fibre amplifier seeded by a 1-Hz-linewidth laser
Ricciardi I., Mosca S., Maddaloni P., Santamaria L., De Rosa M., De Natale P.
Optics Express 21, 14618-14626, 2013 - Frequency-comb-referenced singly-resonant OPO for sub-Doppler spectroscopy
Ricciardi I., De Tommasi E., Maddaloni P., Mosca S., Rocco A., Zondy J.-J., De Rosa M., De Natale P.
Optics Express 20, 9178-9186, 2012 - A narrow-linewitdh, frequency-stabilized OPO for sub-Doppler molecular spectroscopy around 3 µm
Ricciardi I., De Tommasi E., Maddaloni P., Mosca S., Rocco A., Zondy J.-J., De Rosa M., De Natale P.
Nonlinear Optics and Applications, 84341Z-1–84341Z-9, 2012 - A narrow-linewidth optical parametric oscillator for mid-infrared high-resolution spectroscopy
Ricciardi I. , De Tommasi E., Maddaloni P., Mosca S., Rocco A., Zondy J.-J., De Rosa M., De Natale P.
Molecular Physics 110, 2103-2109, 2012 - Cavity-enhanced generation of 6 W cw second-harmonic power at 532 nm in periodically-poled MgO:LiTaO3
Ricciardi I., De Rosa M., Rocco A., Ferraro P., De Natale P.
Optics Express 18, 10985-10994, 2010 - Absolute measurement of the S(0) and S(1) lines in the electric quadrupole fundamental band of D2 around 3 µm
Maddaloni P., Malara P., De Tommasi E., De Rosa M., Ricciardi I., Gagliardi G., Tamassia F., Di Lonardo G., De Natale P.
J. Chem. Phys. 133, 154317, 2010 - Sum-frequency generation of cw ultraviolet radiation in periodically poled LiTaO3
Ricciardi I., De Rosa M., Rocco A., Ferraro P., De Natale P., Vannucci A., Spano P.
Optics Letters 34, 1348-1350, 2009
Contacts
Phone: +39 081 867 5412
e-mail: iolanda.ricciardi@ino.cnr.it
Address: C.N.R. – National Institute of Optics (INO)
Comprensorio Olivetti
Via Campi Flegrei 34
80078 Pozzuoli, Naples
Italy