Propagation effects in high harmonic generation media driven by bright squeezed vacuum light

Recent developments in quantum light engineering have enabled the use of infrared bright squeezed vacuum (BSV) femtosecond pulses in nonlinear optics, including strong-field physics and high-harmonic generation. However, theory has focused on single-atom interactions, neglecting the crucial macroscopic aspect of light propagation through media. This raises a key question: How does BSV propagate in nonlinear media, and how this affects the nonlinear signals and the radiation’s quantumness? We address this with a fully quantized framework for propagation in gas media undergoing high-harmonic generation. We find that ionization and the associated photon losses cause decoherence, which limits the propagation length, degrades radiation’s quantumness, and reduces the emitted harmonics. However, these effects are not detrimental. We identify conditions that minimize propagation-induced decoherence while preserving detectable harmonics with super-Poissonian photon statistics. Our results establish fully quantized basis for exploring BSV in nonlinear optics, strong-field-quantum optics, and ultrafast science in all states of matter. Recent developments in strong-field quantum optics are usually modelled with approaches neglecting the propagation dynamics inside the medium. Here, the authors introduce a fully quantized framework for bright squeezed vacuum states propagating inside atomic media undergoing high-harmonic generation, unveiling the role of decoherence effects.