Much attention has been given in the past to two classes of squeezed states: the squeezed vacuum and coherent states. Here we study the effects of squeezing on number states and on thermal field states. The statistical properties of these various squeezed states are discussed using the second-order correlation functions. The quasiprobabilities of the Wigner, Q, and positive P representations are calculated and compared for the squeezed states. The Glauber P representation for the squeezed thermal state explicitly shows the limit of its applicability. The photon number distributions of the squeezed number and squeezed thermal states are extensively discussed and new interference effects in phase space are shown to lead to highly structured number distributions.

• Received 30 May 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.40.2494