The proposed research will address several fundamental issues in modern quantum optics dealing with the quantum interference of light from two independent sources. Each source is comprised of a high-gain amplifier which amplifies the vacuum field to macroscopic levels. Both phase-insensitive (stimulated Raman scattering) and phase-sensitive (optical parametric) amplification will be studied, for comparison. The phase- insensitive case will allow the first observation of interference between two independent, thermal-like light sources. The phase- sensitive case will explore the interference of two independent nonclassical light fields, for which novel features are predicted. A new concept for observing sub-shot-noise statistics is described theoretically and will be attempted experimentally.
