In Chapter 7, we discuss the fundamental limits of quantum amplification. When quantum effects are amplified to classical signals, noise is added to the signal (there are exceptions, but other trade-offs come into play). A detailed discussion of linear response theory is given, which is applicable to many kinds of quantum-limited measurements. This theory is applied to mesoscopic charge detectors and resonant optical cavities. While fundamental bounds quantum mechanics gives to amplification are important, they do not tell you how to invent a quantum-limited amplifier.

Experimental chapter devoted to quantum observables endowed with continuously varying quantum fluctuations, such as position and momentum, quadrature operators, or phase and amplitude of electromagnetic fields . It shows that one can manipulate this quantum noise by generating squeezed states of light, always within the limits imposed by the Heisenberg inequality, and create strong correlations between these observables to conditionally generate quantum states having intensity quantum fluctuations below the "shot noise" limit imposed by the existence of vacuum fluctuations. Describes an experiment dealing with macroscopic mechanical oscillators displaying motional squeezing below the zero point fluctuations, and another one dealing with macroscopic superconducting exhibiting a whole spectrum of strongly nonclassical states, generated by using the strong anharmonicity of the Josephson potential.