Squeezed phonon states: Modulating quantum fluctuations of atomic displacements.

We study squeezed quantum states of phonons, which allow the possibility of modulating the quantum fluctuations of atomic displacements below the zero-point quantum noise level of coherent phonon states. We calculate the corresponding expectation values and fluctuations of both the atomic displacement and lattice amplitude operators, and also investigate the possibility of generating squeezed phonon states using a three-phonon parametric amplification process based on phonon-phonon interactions. Furthermore, we also propose a detection scheme based on reflectivity measurements.