We study the effect of non-coherent-state pumps on the behavior of the degenerate parametric amplifier. This is done both by developing some exact results and by extending the parametric approximation. Relations are found between the number fluctuations in the pump and those in the signal. The effect of initial phase uncertainty in the pump on the squeezing in the signal is also determined. In addition, we find that rotational symmetry in phase space of the signal-mode state is twice that of the pump-mode state. This implies, for example, that a pump in the squeezed vacuum state will produce a signal-mode state with a four-pronged structure. The effect of a squeezed pump with nonzero amplitude is studied by using a more general form of the parametric approximation. It is shown that in the time interval during which the parametric approximation is valid the effect of this pump is the same as one which is an incoherent superposition of coherent states. We find that while the squeezing of the pump degrades the squeezing of the signal it enhances its amplitude-squared squeezing.

• Received 6 July 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.49.1288