  This paper develops a method of manipulating the squeezed atom state to
generate a few-photon state whose phase or photon-number fluctuations are
prescribed at our disposal. The squeezed atom state is a collective atomic
state whose quantum fluctuations in population difference or collective dipole
are smaller than those of the coherent atom state. It is shown that the
squeezed atom state can be generated by the interaction of atoms with a
coherent state of the electromagnetic field, and that it can be used as a
tunable source of squeezed radiation. A variety of squeezed states, including
the photon-number squeezed state and the phase squeezed state, can be produced
by manipulating the atomic state. This is owing to the fact that
quantum-statistical information of the atomic state is faithfully transferred
to that of the photon state. Possible experimental situations to implement our
theory are discussed.
