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arXiv:1407.6970 · Physical Review A

Proposal for observing intensity-intensity–correlation speckle patterns with thermal light via phase conjugation

Li‐Gang Wang, M. Al-Amri, Muhammad Suhail Zubairy

Published Oct 12, 2015• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In traditional Hanbury Brown--Twiss (HBT) schemes, thermal intensity-intensity correlations (IICs) are phase insensitive. Here we propose a modified HBT scheme with phase conjugation to demonstrate phase-sensitive and nonfactorizable features of thermal IIC speckles. It shows that the novel phase-sensitive features originate from the correlation between the original and phase-conjugated thermal light. Our numerical simulation confirms the possibility of experimental realization, even for the cases of the imperfect phase conjugation. Unlike two-photon speckles, our scheme uses thermal light sources, not the entangled two-photon sources. Our result provides deeper insight into thermal correlations and may lead to significant applications in imaging and speckle technologies.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.92.041802

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In traditional Hanbury Brown--Twiss (HBT) schemes, thermal intensity-intensity correlations (IICs) are phase insensitive. Here we propose a modified HBT scheme with phase conjugation to demonstrate phase-sensitive and nonfactorizable features of thermal IIC speckles. It shows that the novel phase-sensitive features originate from the correlation between the original and phase-conjugated thermal light. Our numerical simulation confirms the possibility of experimental realization, even for the cases of the imperfect phase conjugation. Unlike two-photon speckles, our scheme uses thermal light sources, not the entangled two-photon sources. Our result provides deeper insight into thermal correlations and may lead to significant applications in imaging and speckle technologies.
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Abstract Hanbury-Brown and Twiss (HBT) effect is the foundation for stellar intensity interferometry. However, it is a phase insensitive two-photon interference effect. Here we extend the HBT interferometer by mixing a reference field with the input fields before intensity correlation measurement. With the freely available coherent state serving as the reference field, we experimentally demonstrate the phase sensitive two-photon interference effect when the input fields are thermal fields in either continuous wave or non-stationary pulsed wave and measure the complete complex second-order coherence function of the input fields without bringing them together from separate locations. Moreover, we discuss how to improve the signal level by using the more realistic continuous wave broadband anti-bunched light fields as the reference field. Our investigations pave the way for developing new technology of remote sensing and coherent imaging.
In this experiment, the observation by Hanbury Brown and Twiss that light intensity fluctuations from an extended broadband source are spatially correlated is demonstrated with a quasi-thermal light source. Laser light is used to illuminate a ground glass screen and generate a diffraction pattern, also known as a speckle pattern. The speckle pattern is recorded using an electronic camera and analyzed. Calculated auto-correlations of the intensity fluctuations agree with theoretical results originating from speckle analysis.
Hanbury-Brown and Twiss (HBT) effect is the foundation for stellar intensity interferometry. However, it is a phase insensitive two-photon interference effect. Here we extend the HBT interferometer by mixing intensity-matched reference fields with the input fields before intensity correlation measurement. With the freely available coherent state serving as the reference field, we experimentally demonstrate the phase sensitive two-photon interference effect when the input fields are thermal fields in either continuous wave or non-stationary pulsed wave and measure the complete complex second-order coherence function of the input fields without bringing them together from separate locations. Moreover, we discuss how to improve the signal level by using the more realistic continuous wave broadband anti-bunched light fields as the reference field. Our investigations pave the way for developing new technology of remote sensing and interferometric imaging with applications in long baseline high-resolution astronomy.
Two landmark photon correlation effects, the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) correlation in a quantum entangled source and the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlation in a thermal light source, have long attracted great attention from the physics community. Here, we report the experimental generation of an all-purpose photon-correlation source called holographic thermal light, including both HBT-type and EPR-like correlations, with thermal photons over a wide spectral range (from UV to IR) and a typical polarization combination. All two-photon correlations are established in the framework of linear optics. Interestingly, the topological structures of the diffraction patterns of the sources are very similar to those in type-I and type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) processes. Holographic thermal light with multiple degrees of freedom will establish a quantum-inspired, high-brightness, low-cost classical demonstration platform capable of facilitating various quantum imaging applications at the single-photon level.
Abstract Entanglement and correlation of photons play a central role in quantum information and communication. There are two types of photon correlations: one usually exists in a two‐particle entangled state first conceived by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) in 1935, while the other occurs in a thermal light source found by Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) in 1956. Many studies are concerned with the physical nature and differences behind the two types of photon correlations. Here, a holography‐inspired linear optical system that generates a pair of conjugate chaotic beams is proposed, which include both HBT‐type and EPR‐like correlations. From principle to experimental generation, the study presents a classical paradigm of a simple bi‐correlation light source for diverse quantum‐mimic applications such as two‐photon imaging.