Measurements of Photon Statistics with Nanosecond Resolution

Dainis Dravins

Abstract A photon-counting astronomical instrument for optical observations with nanosecond time resolution is being developed to observe the statistical distribution of photons in time. The purpose of this ‘quantum-optical spectrometer’ is to measure quantum-statistical properties of the photon gas and to study the physics of radiative deexcitation. The amount of photon bunching in time contains information on parameters such as the fraction of stimulated emission and the degree of frequency redistribution that the light has undergone.

Edward R. Pike, Eric Jakeman

Sintayehu Tesfa

Andrew J. Berglund, Andrew C. Doherty, Hideo Mabuchi

We report high time-resolution measurements of photon statistics from pairs of dye molecules coupled by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). In addition to quantum-optical photon antibunching, we observe photon bunching on a time scale of several nanoseconds. We show by numerical simulation that configuration fluctuations in the coupled fluorophore system could account for minor deviations of our data from predictions of basic Förster theory. With further characterization we believe that FRET photon statistics could provide a unique tool for studying DNA mechanics on time scales from 10(-9)-10(-3) s.

Roy S. Bondurant, Prem Kumar, Jeffrey H. Shapiro +1 more

We report measurement of the photon-counting distributions of nanosecond-duration light pulses. Photon counting is performed on light sources with widely different photon statistics, such as (1) a Q-switched Nd:YAG-laserpumped dye laser operating well above threshold and producing single-mode nanosecond pulses, (2) the same laser operating close to threshold, and (3) a rotating ground-glass aberrator illuminated by the laser pulses of case (1). The method is particularly suitable for the investigation of the statistics of light generated by the nonlinear interaction of radiation with matter.

Yuan Liu, Wang Lin Jun, 董双丽 +3 more