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Letter https://doi.org/10.

1038/s41586-019-1083-9

Electric field correlation measurements on the


electromagnetic vacuum state
Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus1*, Francesca Fabiana Settembrini1, Giacomo Scalari1 & Jérôme Faist1*

Quantum mechanics ascribes to the ground state of the locally the birefringence induced in a detection crystal with second-
electromagnetic radiation1 zero-point electric field fluctuations order nonlinear susceptibility χ(2). Using this technique, we recently
that permeate empty space at all frequencies. No energy can be measured the first- and second-order correlation of classical fields with
extracted from the ground state of a system, and therefore these sub-cycle temporal resolution18,19.
fluctuations cannot be measured directly with an intensity detector. In the present study, the detection crystal is permeated at any time by
The experimental proof of their existence therefore came from an infinity of (vacuum) electromagnetic modes of arbitrary wavevector
more indirect evidence, such as the Lamb shift2,3,4, the Casimir k and corresponding frequency Ω. The electro-optic measurement of
force between close conductors5,6,7 or spontaneous emission1,8. A the superposition of all these modes corresponds in the quantum pic-
direct method of determining the spectral characteristics of vacuum ture to the measurement of an operator20 that depends linearly on the
field fluctuations has so far been missing. Here we perform a direct multi-mode vacuum field, expressed as a sum of plane waves:
measurement of the field correlation on these fluctuations in the
terahertz frequency range by using electro-optic detection9 in a ħΩ
Sˆeo(t , r ) = C ∑ a Ω )R(Ω )e−i (Ωt −k ⋅r ) − h.c . )
(ˆ( (1)
nonlinear crystal placed in a cryogenic environment. We investigate Ω 2ε 0ε rV
their temporal and spatial coherence, which, at zero time delay and
spatial distance, has a peak value of 6.2 × 10−2 volts squared per C = −ir41n 3lω pIp / c 0 where c0 is the speed of light in vacuum, ωp =
square metre, corresponding to a fluctuating vacuum field10,11 2π × 375 THz the frequency of the probe, l the crystal length, n
of 0.25 volts per metre. With this measurement, we determine the refractive index at ωp, and r41 the electro-optic coefficient of the
the spectral components of the ground state of electromagnetic detection crystal. â is the annihilation operator. Eˆ THz, Ω (t , r )
(−) (+)
radiation within the bandwidth of our electro-optic detection. =Eˆ THz, Ω (t , r ) + Eˆ THz, Ω (t , r ) =i ħΩ (ˆ(
a Ω )e−i (Ωt −k ⋅ r ) − h.c . ) is the
The spectral properties of the ground state of a quantum system inti- 2ε 0ε r V

mately determine its behaviour. Inside an optical cavity, for example, vacuum electric field operator of a THz mode at angular frequency Ω
the spectral density of states of the vacuum state is shaped, and spon- confined to the volume V of the dielectric constant εr. R(Ω) is intro-
taneous emission is enhanced at its resonance frequency12. Moreover, duced to describe the frequency-dependent responsivity function
systems in which matter excitations are very strongly coupled to a light of electro-optic detection that accounts for the phase matching (see
mode exhibit new eigenstates called polaritons13,14,15. These eigenstates section 1.5 of Supplementary Information). Ip is the (classical) mean
are predicted to have a ground state that is populated with virtual pho- intensity of the coherent probe with a corresponding instantaneous
tons. A method of measuring the spectral properties of the electromag- electric field Eˆ p(t , r ) = E p(t , r ) + δEˆ p(t , r ) . The probe contains its
netic ground state in situ would provide a direct experimental test of own multimode vacuum contribution δEˆ p(t , r ) (refs 1,20). The latter
δEˆ (t , r )
this theoretically predicted property16,17. introduces an (undesired) noise field δE~ˆ(t , r ) = p into the
E p( t , r )
measurement and SˆSN(t , r ) = C δEˆ(t , r ) is the noise-equivalent
The first-order correlation function of a classical field ~
G (1)(τ , δr ) = E ∗(t , r )E (t + τ , r + δr ) (ref. 1), where the angled brack- electro-optic signal. The total measured electro-optic signal is thus
ets express the time and spatial averages, defines the temporal and Sˆ (t , r ) = Sˆeo (t , r ) + SˆSN (t , r ) (ref. 20).
spatial coherence properties of light and yields its power spectrum after We define the electro-optic field correlation operator as the anti-com-
a Fourier transformation. G (1)(τ , δr ) can be obtained by measuring the mutator of the electro-optic operators at (t , r ) and (t + τ , r + δr ) :
mean intensity of the electric field interfering with a delayed and dis- (1)
Gˆ eo (τ , δr ) = − 2C {Sˆeo(t + τ , r + δr ), Sˆeo(t , r )}   . The electro-optic field
1
placed version of itself. The time delay τ is typically given by different correlation operator is composed of ladder operators that are normally
path lengths in the two arms of an interferometer. ordered1, as well as of ladder operators that are not normally ordered.
For quantum states of light, this interference measurement They are instrumental to the field correlation measurements performed
is described by an operator in which the classical fields are replaced by on the vacuum field. Its expectation value Geo (1)
(τ , δr ) at δr = 0 for a ther-
normally ordered positive and negative frequency parts of the electric mal state with a mean photon occupation number per mode n̂(Ω ) is
field operator. The first-order correlation function of quantum fields the electro-optic field correlation function
(−) (+)
yields G (1) (τ , δr ) = ⟨Ê (t , r ) Ê (t + τ , r + δr ) ⟩ (ref. 1), where
represents the expectation value and hat notation indicates quantum (1) ħΩ
Geo (τ , 0) = ∑ (1 + 2 nˆ(Ω ) )|R(Ω )|2 cos(Ωτ ) (2)
operator. As such, the response of an interferometer on the vacuum Ω 2ε 0ε rV
state is clearly zero. We show in the following that the use of electro-
optic detection9 to measure directly the correlation function of the In the experiment, to this quantity is added the correlation between
(−) (+)
complete vacuum electric field Ê (t , r ) + Ê (t , r ) at two space-time the noise-equivalent electric fields at the probe frequency,
points (t , r ) and (t + τ , r + δr ) , instead of an intensity measurement, δEˆ (t , r )δEˆ (t + τ , r ) . It converges to zero as the NIR vacuum fields are
allows the measurement of the field correlation function on the vacuum uncorrelated in the two detection modes and its variance is brought
state. In electro-optic detection, an ultrashort near-infrared (NIR) below the signal levels discussed here by measurement integration, as
probe pulse enables the measurement of the instantaneous electric field demonstrated by the Allan deviation plots (section 3.2 of
of free-running terahertz (THz) electromagnetic waves by probing Supplementary Information).

1
ETH Zurich, Institute of Quantum Electronics, Zurich, Switzerland. *e-mail: ileanab@ethz.ch; jerome.faist@phys.ethz.ch

2 0 2 | N A T U RE | V O L 5 6 8 | 1 1 A P R I L 2 0 1 9
Letter RESEARCH

BSS
Delay stage W
BDt + BDt
WPt + WP
W t
W

QWP
T = 300 K
Seo(t + W, r + δr)
Ultrafast laser

T = 45 K
BSS
Optional: Seo(t, r)
aperture 4 K T=4K ADC Clock in
card
ZnTe

〈Seo (t, r)〉, 〈Seo(t + W, r + δr)〉, 〈Seo (t, r)Seo(t + W, r + δr)〉

b c
NIR vacuum

acuum

ÊTHz (t + W, r + δr)
W (2)
ÊTHz z, [001]
THz v

vac
ÊNIR y
ÊTHz (t, r) (2)
ÊNIR
vac x
ÊTHz

ZnTe δr
Ep (t, r)
z x Probe at W
Ep (t + W, r + δr)
y Probe at t + W
Fig. 1 | Experimental setup for the temporal and spatial electro-optic in real time. b, The vacuum field fluctuations couple from the environment
field correlation on vacuum and thermal fields. a, Two probe pulses into the detection crystal, where the multimode electric field Eˆ THz (t , r )
Ep (t , r ) and Ep(t + τ , r + δr ) sample the electric field of the propagating and Eˆ THz(t + τ , r + δr ) is measured. An efficiently detected THz mode is
waves in the crystal with the repetition rate of the laser used (80 MHz). composed of a superposition of plane waves that have favourable
A mechanical delay stage provides a temporal delay of τ to one of the coherence properties with the probe beams. The lateral displacement of
probe pulses. The detection crystal (ZnTe, 110-cut) is placed inside a the pair of probe pulses δx is determined by an external mirror. c, The
closed-cycle cryostat and is thermally anchored to the 4 K plate. It can be vacuum fields at NIR and THz frequencies polarized along the x axis of the
shielded from the blackbody radiation of the environment by two shields, crystal mix with the probes polarized along the z axis. The generated
with temperatures of 45 K and 4 K, respectively. The sampled electric fields components at NIR frequencies along the x axis introduce an elliptical
introduce the electro-optic signals Sˆeo(t , r ) and Sˆeo(t + τ , r + δr ) on the two polarization of the probes after the crystal. BD, balanced detector; BSS,
probe pulses, which are individually recorded by means of an analogue- beam stabilization system; QWP, quarter-wave plate; WP, Wollaston prism.
to-digital converter (ADC). Here, the relevant correlations are computed

For a vanishing THz photon population, the input state is the vac- The field-induced birefringence is measured individually for each
uum state ∣0⟩ , described by n̂(Ω ) = 0. The electro-optic correlation single probing pulse and separately for the two time-delayed trains of
(1) ħΩ
function yields in this case Geo (τ , 0) = ∑Ω 2ε ε V |R(Ω )|2 cos(Ωτ ). pulses with two balanced detection schemes, as shown in Fig. 1a. All
0 r
Here we show experimentally that the electro-optic field correlation measurements are saved and processed in real time by means of a fast
measurement on a vacuum state is non-zero. We implemented the analogue-to-digital converter that is phase-locked to the laser oscillator
two-point correlation measurement18,19 of Geo (1)
(τ , δr ) using a pair of at a repetition rate of frep = 80 MHz.
(1)
mode-matched 80-fs pulses of waist w0 = 125 μm that sample the multi- The measured electro-optic field correlation Geo (τ , 0) is shown
mode THz vacuum field in the two space–time points as shown in together with the associated power spectrum in Fig. 3 for two distinct
Fig. 1a and in the zoom Fig. 1b (δr is changed by steering mirrors out- temperatures, 300 K and 4 K. They are compared to simulated results,
side the cryostat, and τ is controlled by a mechanical delay stage). The computed using equation (2) as described in detail in sections 1.3 and
probe polarization is oriented along the z axis of the zinc telluride 1.4 of Supplementary Information.
(ZnTe) detection crystal and thereby maximizes the electro-optic effect In Fig. 3a and c, we show results obtained when the system is at
but suppresses all undesired coherent χ(2) effects (sections 1.1 and 1.6 T = 300 K. In this condition, the blackbody radiation from the envi-
of Supplementary Information). The 3-mm-thick crystal is inserted in ronment dominates over the vacuum field, with a photon occupation
a cryostat that enables control of its thermal environment with temper- number of n̂(Ω = 2π × 1 THz) = 5. The field coherence is preserved
atures between 4 K and 300 K. In this fashion, the contribution of each for a duration of 250 fs. The power spectrum reveals a large contribution
(1)
mode to the total electro-optic correlation function Geo (τ , δr ) is con- of low-frequency components, which exhibit a high mean occupation
trolled, by changing the mean population of the mode with thermal of thermal photons. The contribution of high-frequency components
photons as shown in Fig. 2a, the phase matching with the probe is reduced by THz absorption in the detection crystal. The peak-to-
(1)
pulse, described by the coherence length shown in Fig. 2b, and the peak signal is Geo,pp = 0.98 V2 m−2 , and the root mean square of the
2 −2
transmission of THz photons in the detection crystal shown in Fig. 2c. noise is σ = 0.134 V m .

1 1 A P R I L 2 0 1 9 | V O L 5 6 8 | N A T U RE | 2 0 3
RESEARCH Letter

a b c
3 1

Electric field transmission Eout /Ein


2.5

Mean photon occupation 〈n〉


100 〈n〉 = 1/2 occupancy 0.8
Fresnel reflection losses

Coherence length (mm)


2
0.6
10–2
1.5
0.4
10–4 1

4K 0.2
0.5 10 K 10 K
10–6 45 K
300 K 300 K
300 K
0 0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Frequency (THz) Frequency (THz) Frequency (THz)

Fig. 2 | Mean photon occupation number per mode, coherence length detection crystal cooled to 10 K and 300 K. c, Electric field transmission
and electric field transmission of THz radiation. a, Mean photon through the 3-mm-thick uncoated ZnTe detection crystal at different
occupation number per mode for blackbody radiation at different temperatures.
temperatures1. b, Coherence length of electro-optic detection for a

In Fig. 3b and d, we show results when the system is at 4 K base of Supplementary Information, strictly speaking, in this case, the elec-
temperature (optional 4 K aperture shown in Fig. 1a in use). In this tromagnetic modes must be treated by considering their corresponding
condition, the trace and amplitude of the electro-optic field correlation wavevector k, rather than their angular frequency Ω. In Fig. 3e, we
(1)
change markedly, and the thermal contribution is suppressed report the peak-to-peak magnitude of Geo (τ , δx ) as a function of the
( nˆ(Ω = 2π × 1 THz) = 10−6). The power spectrum of vacuum fluc- probe spacing δx. We find that the spatial coherence is maintained over
tuations contains frequency components in the frequency band around multiple wavelengths of the probed radiation, resulting in a lateral
0.75 THz and around 2 THz. This behaviour is well reproduced in our coherence length of 410 μm at 300 K and 375 μm at 4 K. We attribute
simulations and matches the coherence properties reported in Fig. 2b the difference between our simulation and the experimental results to
(1)
very well. The peak-to-peak signal is Geo,pp = 0.084 V2 m−2 , and the an uncertainty in the phase matching of the two waves.
root mean square of the noise is σ = 0.018 V2 m−2. To achieve this Finally, we demonstrate the pure electromagnetic origin of our meas-
sensitivity, the integration time has been greatly increased, as discussed urements by removing the optional aperture shown in Fig. 1a when the
in sections 3.2 and 3.3 of Supplementary Information. system is cooled to 4 K. We thus change solely the properties of the
We additionally investigate the spatial electro-optic field correlation detected light by allowing thermal radiation from the 45 K plate to
of the probed vacuum and thermal fields by displacing the two probe reach the detection crystal. The electro-optic field correlation function,
beams in the crystal along the x axis, δr = δxex. The lateral spatial coher- reported in Fig. 4a, is considerably different from the one at 4 K. The
(1)
ence length1 of the probed multimode THz wave is determined by the peak-to-peak value is increased to Geo,pp = 0.14 V2 m−2  . The coherence
participating waves with non-zero in-plane wavevector k⊥ and the time exceeds several picoseconds. In Fig. 4b, we compare the detected
transversal mode profile of the probe. As shown in section 1.4 photon number per mode extracted from the measured power

a b
0.1
0.7

0 0
Geo(W, 0) (V2 m–2)
Geo(W, 0) (V2 m–2)

–0.7
–0.1
e
0.7 1.4 0.20
Simulation
0 Measurement
0 1.2
Geo,pp(W, δx) at 300 K (V2 m–2)

T = 300 K T=4K
Geo,pp(W, δx) at 4 K (V2 m–2)

〈n(1THz)〉thermal,in = 5 0.15
–0.7 〈n(1THz)〉thermal,in = 10–6 1.0
–0.1
–1.0 0 1.0 –1.0 0 1.0
0.8
W (ps) W (ps)
0.10
c 0.4 d 0.020
0.6
Simulation Simulation
Measurement Measurement
Spectrum (V2 m–2 Hz–1)

Spectrum (V2 m–2 Hz–1)

0.3 0.015 0.4


0.05

0.2
0.2 0.010
0 0
0 200 400
0.1 0.005 Probe distance δx (μm)

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Frequency (THz) Frequency (THz)

Fig. 3 | Electro-optic field correlation results at 300 K and 4 K. fields are estimated by computing the real part of the Fourier transform of
(1) (1)
a, b, Electro-optic field correlation measurements Geo (τ , 0) (top plot) are the raw (unfiltered) electro-optic field correlations Geo (τ , 0), owing to the
compared to simulations (bottom plot) for two temperatures, 300 K fact that, by definition, the electro-optic correlation function is symmetric
(a) and 4 K (b). Faded lines denote raw measurements and thick lines the around τ = 0. e, Spatial coherence of the probed vacuum (blue squares)
curves filtered by a low-pass Fourier filter with a cut-off frequency of and thermal fields (red dots). The time traces from which these values
3 THz, corresponding to the upper bound for efficient electro-optic were extracted are shown in Supplementary Information. All error bars
detection in a 3-mm-thick crystal. c, d, The power spectra of the detected represent the 1σ confidence interval.

2 0 4 | N A T U RE | V O L 5 6 8 | 1 1 A P R I L 2 0 1 9
Letter RESEARCH

a b Although the present measurements, performed in an inorganic ZnTe


0.2
2 crystal, required long integration times to extract the signal, much
larger signal-over-noise could be achieved with organics-based cavity-

Mean photon occupation 〈n〉


0.1 Expected
Detected enhanced THz detectors with extremely large electro-optic coeffi-
0 1.5
Geo (W, 0) (V2 m–2)

cients28. By embedding the nonlinear material in a resonator, the


–0.1 presence of a superradiant phase transition in a coupled light–matter
0.2 1 system29 as well as the influence of the vacuum field on the charge
0.1 transport could be investigated30,31. In addition, by changing the detec-
0 0.5 tion of the near-infrared pulse from an ellipsometric to a projective
T = 300 K polarization measurement32,33, electro-optic detection may provide
–0.1 〈n(1 THz)〉thermal,in =0.5 a path for the generation of heralded single photons in the THz fre-
0
–1.5 –1 –0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 1 2 3 quency range.
W (ps) Frequency (THz)
Fig. 4 | Electro-optic field correlation result of thermal radiation at Online content
45 K. a, Electro-optic field correlation measurement (top plot) is Any methods, additional references, Nature Research reporting summaries, source
compared to the simulation (bottom plot). b, The mean number ⟨n⟩ of data, statements of data availability and associated accession codes are available at
detected photons is compared to the expected mean number of photons at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1083-9.
45 K. For the estimation of the detected number of photons, see Methods. Received: 16 August 2018; Accepted: 19 February 2019;
In the region below 2 THz, only a few photons per mode are detected. The
Published online 10 April 2019.
error bars represent the 1σ confidence interval.
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RESEARCH Letter

30. Hagenmüller, D., Schachenmayer, J., Schütz, S., Genes, C. & Pupillo, G. developed the data acquisition system and noise suppression protocols.
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Additional information
Acknowledgements This work was funded by the European Research Council Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.
(Advanced Grant, Quantum Metamaterials in the Ultra Strong Coupling org/10.1038/s41586-019-1083-9.
Regime) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant 165639). We Reprints and permissions information is available at http://www.nature.com/
acknowledge the mechanical workshop at ETHZ. We acknowledge the reprints.
contribution of M. Ernzer to the noise analysis tools, E. Mavrona to the design Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to I.-C.B. or
of opto-mechanical components and the extraction of the refractive index of J.F.
ZnTe, and A. Imamoglu for discussions. Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Author contributions I.-C.B.-C. and J.F. conceived and designed the
experiments. I.-C.B.-C., F.F.S and G.S. built the experimental setup. I.-C.B.-C. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019

2 0 6 | N A T U RE | V O L 5 6 8 | 1 1 A P R I L 2 0 1 9
Letter RESEARCH

Methods This technique presents two advantages: it removes any coherent nonlinear signals
Signal demodulation at frep/2. The measurement of the electro-optic correlation and suppresses the 1/f noise, in particular slow drift contributions. The noise proper-
function on vacuum fields presented in this work required measurement integra- ties of the algorithm are found in sections 3.2 and 3.3 of Supplementary Information.
tion times that exceeded 104 s per measurement point. To ensure that the sole noise Calculation of photon number for 45 K data. The number of photons per mode
present in the system was shot noise, we implemented an effective noise cancelling can be extracted from the Fourier transformation of the electro-optic correlation
technique. It consisted of the demodulation of the balanced voltages from the two function. For this, we make use of equation (2). Because the crystal is cooled to
balanced photodetectors at half the repetition rate of the femtosecond laser oscil- 4 K, and only the radiation is at 45 K, the responsivity function R(Ω) is equal for
lator (Mai Tai) before the computation of the correlation function. A phase-locked the two measurements at 4 K and 45 K. Denoting by S Geo,4K (1) (Ω) the power spectrum

demodulation is algebraically equivalent to the subtraction of measurements from at 4 K and S Geo,45K


(1) (Ω) the power spectrum at 45 K, we find
temporally adjacent femtosecond probing pulses. This technique preserves the
measurement of the electro-optic field correlation function, provided that the sam- 1  S G (1) (Ω) 
pled THz fields are coherent only on timescales shorter than Trep = 1/frep = 12.5 ns, nˆ(Ω) =  eo,45K − 1 (4)
2  S Geo,4K
(1) (Ω) 
which is fulfilled in the present case: 
To compute the photon number from Fig. 4b, we used the measured data at
(Sˆeo(t , r) − Sˆeo(t + Trep, r))(Sˆeo(t + τ , r + δr) − Sˆeo(t + τ + Trep, r + δr)) = 45 K and 4 K.
(3)
Sˆeo(t , r)Sˆeo(t + τ , r + δr) + Sˆeo(t + Trep, r)Sˆeo(t + Trep + τ , r + δr)
Data availability
The raw data associated with Figs. 2b, c, 3a–e and 4a, b are provided with the
The cross-terms Sˆeo(t , r)Sˆeo(t + τ + Trep, r + δr) = Sˆeo(t + Trep, r)Sˆeo(t + τ , r + δr) manuscript. Other data that support the findings of this study are available from
= 0. the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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