Soliton squeezing in a highly transmissive nonlinear optical loop mirror

A perturbation approach is used to study the quantum noise of optical solitons in an asymmetric fiber Sagnac interferometer (a highly transmissive nonlinear optical loop mirror). Analytical expressions for the three second-order quadrature correlators are derived and used to predict the amount of detectable amplitude squeezing along with the optimum power-splitting ratio of the Sagnac interferometer. We find that it is the number-phase correlation owing to the Kerr nonlinearity that is primarily responsible for the observable noise reduction. The group-velocity dispersion affecting the field in the nonsoliton arm of the fiber interferometer is shown to limit the minimum achievable Fano factor.