Stable nondegenerate optical parametric oscillation at degenerate frequencies in Na:KTP

We report the realization of a light source specifically designed for the generation of bright continuous-variable entangled beams and for Heisenberg-limited inteferometry. The source is a nondegenerate, single-mode, continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator in Na:KTP, operated at frequency degeneracy and just above threshold, which is also of interest for the study of critical fluctuations at the transition point. The residual frequency-difference jitter is ±150 kHz for a 3 MHz cold cavity half width at half maximum. We observe 4 dB of photon-number-difference squeezing at 200 kHz. The Na:KTP crystal is noncritically phase matched for a 532 nm pump and polarization crosstalk is therefore practically nonexistent.