Tuning photon statistics with coherent fields

Abstract

Photon correlations, as measured by Glauber's $n\mathrm{th}$-order coherence functions ${g}^{(n)}$, are highly sought to be minimized and/or maximized. In systems that are coherently driven, so-called blockades can give rise to strong correlations according to two scenarios based on level repulsion (conventional blockade) or interferences (unconventional blockade). Here, we show how these two approaches relate to the admixing of a coherent state with a quantum state such as a squeezed state for the simplest and most recurrent case. The emission from a variety of systems, such as resonance fluorescence, the Jaynes-Cummings model, or microcavity polaritons, as a few examples of a large family of quantum optical sources, are shown to be particular cases of such admixtures, that can further be doctored up externally by adding an amplitude- and phase-controlled coherent field with the effect of tuning the photon statistics from exactly zero to infinity. We show how such an understanding also allows to classify photon statistics throughout platforms according to conventional and unconventional features, with the effect of optimizing the correlations and with possible spectroscopic applications. In particular, we show how configurations that can realize simultaneously conventional and unconventional antibunching bring the best of both worlds: huge antibunching (unconventional) with large populations and being robust to dephasing (conventional).