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arXiv:1702.08792 · Physical Review A

Superbunching pseudothermal light

Yu Zhou, Fuli Li, Bin Bai, Hui Chen, Jianbin Liu, Zhuo Xu, Huaibin Zheng

Published May 3, 2017• 54 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A simple superbunching pseudothermal light source is introduced based on common instruments such as laser, lenses, pinholes, and ground glasses. ${g}^{(2)}(0)=3.66\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$ is observed in the suggested scheme by employing two rotating ground glasses. Quantum and classical theories are employed to interpret the observed superbunching effect. It is predicted that ${g}^{(2)}(0)$ can reach ${2}^{N}$ if $N$ rotating ground glasses were employed. These results are helpful to understand the physics of superbunching. The proposed superbunching pseudothermal light may serve as a type of light to study the second- and higher-order coherence of light and have potential application in improving the visibility of thermal light ghost imaging.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.95.053809

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A simple superbunching pseudothermal light source is introduced based on common instruments such as laser, lenses, pinholes, and ground glasses. g(2)(0)=3.66\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.02{g}^{(2)}(0)=3.66\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02g(2)(0)=3.66\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.02 is observed in the suggested scheme by employing two rotating ground glasses. Quantum and classical theories are employed to interpret the observed superbunching effect. It is predicted that g(2)(0){g}^{(2)}(0)g(2)(0) can reach 2N{2}^{N}2N if NNN rotating ground glasses were employed. These results are helpful to understand the physics of superbunching. The proposed superbunching pseudothermal light may serve as a type of light to study the second- and higher-order coherence of light and have potential application in improving the visibility of thermal light ghost imaging.
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.
Three-photon superbunching is experimentally observed with the recently proposed superbunching pseudothermal light. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that three-photon superbunching is observed with classical light in a linear optical system. From the quantum optics point of view, three-photon superbunching is interpreted as the result of constructive-destructive three-photon interference. The key to observe three-photon superbunching with superbunching pseudothermal light is that all the different ways to trigger a three-photon coincidence count are in principle indistinguishable, which is experimentally guaranteed by putting a pinhole before each rotating ground glass to ensure that all the passed photons are within the same coherence area. The observed three-photon superbunching is helpful to increase the visibility of ghost imaging and understand the physics of third-order interference of light.
Two-photon bunching and superbunching are important to understanding the physics of ghost imaging and second-order interference of light. With the help of the recently proposed superbunching pseudothermal light, the physics of bunching and superbunching in superbunching pseudothermal light is studied in detail. A special two-photon coincidence count detection system is designed to measure the required two-photon coincidence counts. It is concluded that the two-photon superbunching effect cannot be observed without taking the intensity changing process into account. A similar conclusion holds for two-photon bunching of thermal light. The conclusions are helpful for understanding of the physics of two-photon bunching and superbunching in intensity or photon number fluctuation correlation theory.
Thermal light, including blackbody radiation and spontaneous emission, exhibits photon bunching. Thermal light sources, however, typically yield low spectral densities, limiting their practical utility. Pseudothermal light sources with higher brightness and longer coherence time are often employed instead. While pseudothermal light also exhibits photon bunching, this property may not suffice to fully replicate the behavior of genuine thermal light. Here we demonstrate a method to directly test the Siegert relation for two sources of photon-bunched light, laser light scattered from a rotating ground glass and spontaneously emitted light from a gas discharge lamp, probing a fundamental criterion expected of thermal light.
Superbunching pseudothermal light has important applications in studying the second- and higher-order interference of light in quantum optics. Unlike the photon statistics of thermal or pseudothermal light is well understood, the photon statistics of superbunching pseudothermal light has not been studied yet. In this paper, we will employ single-photon detectors to measure the photon statistics of superbunching pseudothermal light and calculate the degree of second-order coherence. It is found that the larger the value of the degree of second-order coherence of superbunching pseudothermal light is, the more the measured photon distribution deviates from the one of thermal or pseudothermal light in the tail part. The results are helpful to understand the physics of two-photon superbunching with classical light. It is suggested that superbunching pseudothermal light can be employed to generate non-Rayleigh temporal speckles.
Pseudothermal light exhibits photon bunching, like thermal light, but it does not originate from randomly phased emission. As photon bunching is common in both pseudothermal and thermal light, the analysis of photon bunching is insufficient to differentiate pseudothermal light and thermal light. However, thermal light obeys the Siegert relation, which connects the interferometric visibility ∥g(1)(τ )∥ and second-order photon correlation g(2)(τ ). In this work, we present a direct test test for Siegert relation by a single-shot measurement. Using our technique, we demonstrate that laser light scattered off a rotating ground glass, violates the Siegert relation, which provides further evidence that it is a pseudothermal light source.