Limits to squeezing in the degenerate OPO

We develop a systematic theory of quantum fluctuations in the driven parametric oscillator (OPO), including the region near threshold. This allows us to treat the limits imposed by nonlinearities to quantum squeezing and noise reduction, in this non-equilibrium quantum phase-transition. In particular, we compute the squeezing spectrum near threshold, and calculate the optimum value. We find that the optimal noise reduction occurs at different driving fields, depending on the ratio of damping rates. The largest spectral noise reductions are predicted to occur with a very high-Q second-harmonic cavity. Our analytic results agree well with stochastic numerical simulations. We also compare the results obtained in the positive-P representation, as a fully quantum mechanical calculation, with the truncated Wigner phase space equation, also known as semiclassical theory.