Observation of cw squeezed light at 1550 nm

We report on the generation of cw squeezed vacuum states of light at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm. The squeezed vacuum states were produced by type I optical parametric amplification in a standing-wave cavity built around a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal. A nonclassical noise reduction of 5.3 dB below the shot noise was observed by means of balanced homodyne detection.