Quantum correlations in second harmonic generation with a detuned cavity

In this article we investigate the effects of cavity detuning on two quantu m properties of the generated optical fields in cavity second harmonic gene ration. These are the configuration of the error ellipse and the intensity fluctuations of the fields, including the sum field of the two modes. The f orm of the error ellipse is of topical interest due to recent work on quant um tomography, which allows experimental measurement of the Wigner function for light fields. We also investigate to what extent the decrease in quadr ature squeezing with detuning can be attributed solely to the resulting dep letion of the intra-cavity fields. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All right s reserved.