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arXiv:2312.09339 · Physical Review A

Wait-time distributions for photoelectric detection of light

Luis F. Morales Bultron, Reeta Vyas, Surendra Singh

Published Feb 13, 2024• 3 citations
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Abstract

Wait-time distributions for the $n\mathrm{th}$ photodetection at a detector illuminated by a stationary light beam are studied. Both unconditional measurements, initiated at an arbitrary instant, and conditional measurements, initiated upon a photodetection, are considered. Simple analytic expressions are presented for several classical and quantum sources of light and are used to quantify and compare photon sequences generated by them. These distributions can be measured in photon-counting experiments and are useful in characterizing and generating photon sequences with prescribed statistics. The effects of nonunit detection efficiency are also discussed, and curves are presented to illustrate the behavior.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.109.023711

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Wait-time distributions for the nthn\mathrm{th}nth photodetection at a detector illuminated by a stationary light beam are studied. Both unconditional measurements, initiated at an arbitrary instant, and conditional measurements, initiated upon a photodetection, are considered. Simple analytic expressions are presented for several classical and quantum sources of light and are used to quantify and compare photon sequences generated by them. These distributions can be measured in photon-counting experiments and are useful in characterizing and generating photon sequences with prescribed statistics. The effects of nonunit detection efficiency are also discussed, and curves are presented to illustrate the behavior.
A simple model is introduced to simulate the detection of cavity radiation with the detector placed outside the cavity. Explicit expressions, in terms of initial photon-number distribution, for the time-dependent distributions of photoelectron number and conditional as well as unconditional waiting times are derived. The effect of photodetection on the quantum state of the radiation in the present arrangement is found to be unchanged from that with the detector placed inside the cavity. The well-known Q parameter introduced by Mondel [Opt. Lett. 4, 205 (1979)] is found to be exactly equal to the change in the expectation value of photon number due to the detection of a photon. Photon bunching or antibunching, reflecting classical or nonclassical radiation, is determined by whether conditional waiting time is less or greater than unconditional waiting time. When this criterion is applied to three specific examples, namely, coherent, thermal, and number states, the results are as expected.
Nonclassical light beams generated by the degenerate optical parametric oscillator operating below threshold are analyzed in terms of photoelectron-counting sequences. The positive-P representation is used to calculate the generating function for photoelectron statistics in a closed form. This generating function is used to derive expressions for the photoelectron-counting and waiting-time distributions. The dependence of these distributions on mean photon number inside the cavity and efficiency of detection is studied. The relationship between photoelectron-counting sequence and the photon emission sequence is used to present a simple physical picture of light beams produced by the degenerate parametric oscillator.