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arXiv:1107.1353 · Physical Review A

Measuring the quantum nature of light with a single source and a single detector

Gesine A. Steudle, Stefan Schietinger, David Höckel, Sander N. Dorenbos, Iman Esmaeil Zadeh, Val Zwiller, Oliver J. Benson

Published Nov 15, 2012• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

An elementary experiment in optics consists of a light source and a detector. Yet, if the source generates nonclassical correlations such an experiment is capable of unambiguously demonstrating the quantum nature of light. We realized such an experiment with a defect center in diamond and a superconducting detector. Previous experiments relied on more complex setups, such as the Hanbury Brown and Twiss configuration, where a beam splitter directs light to two photodetectors, creating the false impression that the beam splitter is a fundamentally required element. As an additional benefit, our results provide a simplification of the widely used photon-correlation techniques.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.053814

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An elementary experiment in optics consists of a light source and a detector. Yet, if the source generates nonclassical correlations such an experiment is capable of unambiguously demonstrating the quantum nature of light. We realized such an experiment with a defect center in diamond and a superconducting detector. Previous experiments relied on more complex setups, such as the Hanbury Brown and Twiss configuration, where a beam splitter directs light to two photodetectors, creating the false impression that the beam splitter is a fundamentally required element. As an additional benefit, our results provide a simplification of the widely used photon-correlation techniques.
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In quantum mechanics it is possible to pack an arbitrary number of bosons into the same quantum state. The maximum occupancy for fermions, however is one. Back in 1956 two British scientists, Hanbury Brown and Twiss, conducted a classic experiment that showed that photons, a type of boson, have a tendency to bunch into clusters. Their experiment comprised two light sources and two detectors set up to measure the light that was transmitted and reflected by a beam splitter at the centre of the experimental configuration (see figure a). The bunching was observed by measuring the intensity correlation between the two coherent beams of light as a function of time. Hanbury Brown and Twiss measured the likelihood of observing a fluctuation in one detector at a particular time when a signal was detected at an earlier time in the other detector. The positive correlation they found was consistent with the bunching property of bosons.
Abstract Investigations of photon correlations similar to the Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiment are since the advent of quantum optics in the center of both fundamental and application-oriented research. We derive a factorial moment-generating function of the probability distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a source and absorbed by a photodetector from which we calculate an analytical expression for the second-order correlation coefficient g(2)g^{(2)}g(2) g ( 2 ) which reflects spatial coherence properties of the emitted light. The measurement of g(2)g^{(2)}g(2) g ( 2 ) thus allows to retrieve the spatial coherence parameter of the light source in terms of the combination of source area, source-detector distance, wavelength and detector area. The validity of the concept is proven by investigating g(2)g^{(2)}g(2) g ( 2 ) of true thermal light from a Xenon arc lamp and from the sun for various detector areas, in excellent agreement with the theory. Finally, we suggest a novel scheme for determining light source diameters by exploiting the spatially dependent statistics and confirm its validity by exemplary calculations. These results based on radiation thermodynamics and photon statistics give fresh insight into quantum optical properties of classical light sources, photon correlations and photodetection with promising applications perspectives, more than 68 years after the original Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiment.
An important step towards the commercialization of quantum technology is the miniaturization of nowadays tabletop setups. The Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) configuration is an important building block in many quantum optics experiments. Within this contribution, we present and compare different concepts for realizing a miniaturized, fiber-coupled HBT configuration, which will be robust and adjustment free. The design process is based on ray tracing simulations, with the aim of finding the best compromise regarding the level of miniaturization and detection efficiency. As an application example, the detection of the luminescence of two different charge states of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond is used. For this reason, in contrast to the actual HBT experiment, a dichroic beam splitter is used.