Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have achieved the first-ever measurement of the temporal duration of individual pulses of bright squeezed vacuum (BSV), a highly fluctuating quantum state of light. The study, published in Optica, was led by Dr. Michael Krüger and Ph.D. student Yuval Kern, in collaboration with Technion colleagues and an international partner from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light.

BSV is considered a “vacuum state” with zero average electric field, yet it exhibits extremely strong quantum fluctuations that can generate الضوء pulses containing up to 10¹² photons. Until now, the duration of such pulses had never been directly measured.

Using a novel interferometric technique, the team combined BSV with controlled laser pulses and analyzed the resulting interference patterns to reconstruct the electric field of individual pulses. They found that each pulse lasts approximately 27 femtoseconds, placing BSV in the ultrafast regime. The measurements also confirmed that, when averaged, the electric field approaches zero—consistent with its quantum vacuum nature.

These findings open new possibilities for studying ultrafast electron dynamics and nonlinear optical phenomena. Due to its quantum properties, BSV may enable researchers to probe matter under extreme conditions with reduced risk of damage compared to conventional laser. The work represents a significant advance in quantum optics and ultrafast science.