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arXiv:1108.3612 · Physical Review A

Two-photon superbunching of thermal light via multiple two-photon path interference

Peilong Hong, Jianbin Liu, Guoquan Zhang

Published Jul 6, 2012• 28 citations
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Abstract

We report on the two-photon superbunching effect of thermal light via constructive multiple two-photon path interference, showing the possibility of controlling the bunching property of thermal light in a linear optical system. By inserting $n$ pairs of mutually first-order incoherent optical channels as a cascade into the traditional Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometer, the two-photon bunching peak-to-background ratio of thermal light can be increased by up to $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1.{5}^{n}$, surpassing the theoretical upper limit of 2 for a traditional HBT interferometer. Experimentally, the ratio was measured to be $2.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1$ when one pair of optical channels was inserted. Such a scheme can be viewed as a prototype of a two-photon grating.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.013807

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We report on the two-photon superbunching effect of thermal light via constructive multiple two-photon path interference, showing the possibility of controlling the bunching property of thermal light in a linear optical system. By inserting nnn pairs of mutually first-order incoherent optical channels as a cascade into the traditional Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometer, the two-photon bunching peak-to-background ratio of thermal light can be increased by up to 2\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1.5n2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1.{5}^{n}2\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1.5n, surpassing the theoretical upper limit of 2 for a traditional HBT interferometer. Experimentally, the ratio was measured to be 2.4\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.12.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.12.4\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.1 when one pair of optical channels was inserted. Such a scheme can be viewed as a prototype of a two-photon grating.
Two-photon superbunching of classical light is observed with single-mode continuous-wave laser light in a linear optical system. By adding more two-photon paths via rotating ground glasses, pinholes, lens, etc., g(2)(0)=7.10±0.07 is experimentally observed. The second-order temporal coherence function of the superbunching pseudothermal light is theoretically and experimentally studied in detail. It is predicted that the degree of coherence can be increased dramatically by adding more multi-photon paths. For instance, the degree of the second- and third-order coherence of the superbunching pseudothermal light with five rotating ground glasses can reach 32 and 7776, respectively. The results are helpful to understanding the physics of superbunching and improving the visibility of thermal light ghost imaging.
Superposition of multiple indistinguishable two-photon paths is introduced by means of a digital wave front encoding technique to design a spatially phase-correlated wave front of a light field, which could result in a superbunching effect with a bunching peak much larger than 2, the theoretical bunching peak of thermal light. Experimentally, we demonstrated a bunching peak of $11.72\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$ with the digitally designed phase-correlated wave front of classical light, which can be improved further on. A significant improvement of the visibility of the second-order interference fringes and ghost imaging was also experimentally demonstrated. Our method provides a convenient digitally controllable way to implement superposition of multiple different but indistinguishable two-photon paths, and therefore to modify the optical coherence properties of photons. Such a superbunching effect may have potential applications in improving the visibility of correlation interference and imaging, and enhancing the efficiency of two-photon nonlinear effects such as two-photon absorption effect.
We propose an experimental scheme in which two orthogonally polarized thermal light beams with antisymmetrical wavefronts are overlapped. The experimental results demonstrate that this setup can focus the beam in two-photon and multiphoton correlation measurements. The focused ``two-photon'' spot possesses subwavelength resolution, surpassing the classical diffraction limit. Since the experimental setup consists of only two right-angle-mirror devices without the help of lenses, the two-photon focusing effect does not apparently rely on the beam focusing. Physically, the phenomenon signifies that the photon bunching can be localized within a very small region through two-photon interference in contrast to the conventional Hanbury Brown--Twiss effect of thermal light. In the higher-order intensity correlation measurement, the multiphoton bunching can be limited within a very small central region while the background is greatly suppressed.
The observation of the Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) effect with thermal light marked the birth of quantum optics. All the thermal sources considered to date did not feature quantum signatures of light, as they consisted of independent emitters that emit uncorrelated photons. Here, we propose and demonstrate an incoherent light source based on phase-randomized spatially entangled photons, which we coin thermal biphotons. We show that in contrast to thermal light, the width of the HBT peak for thermal biphotons is determined by their correlations, leading to violation of the Siegert relation and breakdown of the speckle-fluctuations interpretation. We further provide an alternative interpretation of the results by drawing a connection between the HBT effect and coherent backscattering of light. Finally, we discuss the role of spatial entanglement in the observed results, deriving a relation between the Schmidt number and the degree of violation of the Siegert relation under the double-Gaussian approximation of spontaneous parametric down conversion. Our work reflects new insights on the coherence properties of thermal light in the presence of entanglement, paving the way for entanglement certification using disorder averaged measurements.
Thermal light by nature exhibits the well-known photon bunching effect with the zero-delay second-order correlation coefficient g(2){g}^{(2)}g(2) ideally equal to 2. The Photon extra-bunching effect, as a special class of the superbunching effect (g(2)>2{g}^{(2)}>2g(2)>2), describes the enhanced photon correlation (g(2)=3{g}^{(2)}=3g(2)=3) through the interference of bright twin beams produced in the spontaneous parametric down-conversion. In this work, we report that this effect can exist in classical beams and that g(2){g}^{(2)}g(2) can approach 4 in some extended extreme models. We experimentally demonstrate the nontrivial extra-bunching correlation ($\ensuremath{\sim}1.4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}$ gain) in pairwise-generated holographic thermal light beams with a Dove prism-embedded balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The interaction of such a pair of conjugated thermal light beams can generate a pair of uncorrelated superthermal light beams, enabling ghost imaging and Young's intensity interference with enhanced visibility. The quantum-inspired interference-induced spatial extra-bunching effect provides novel insights into inducing superbunching correlation in classical light and holds the potential for application in the coherent two-photon Lidar system to enhance sensitivity.