Observation of quadrature squeezing in a cavity-atom system

We report observation of up to 18% (50% inferred) squeezing in a near-bistable cavity-atom system. The squeezing is found in a new regime which produces a squeezed beam of significant (0.17 mW) power. This allows the shape and orientation of the squeezing ellipse to be experimentally determined. These results, in conjunction with other work, demonstrate that the type of squeezing produced by the cavity-atom system can be altered by changing experimentally accessible parameters, a versatility not found in other systems.