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Intensity Interferometry Experiment

Christy Rose Pedraza

Published Jan 1, 2014• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In this experiment we investigate the correlations in the intensity of diffracted light using an interferometer similar to Hanbury Brown and Twiss’. We use a pseudo-thermal light source composed of a laser and a rotating ground-glass screen with detection by silicon photodiodes. The experimental results agree with the theory that describes the correlation between spatially separated parts of the intensity field.

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In this experiment we investigate the correlations in the intensity of diffracted light using an interferometer similar to Hanbury Brown and Twiss’. We use a pseudo-thermal light source composed of a laser and a rotating ground-glass screen with detection by silicon photodiodes. The experimental results agree with the theory that describes the correlation between spatially separated parts of the intensity field.
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.
In 1956, Hanbury Brown and Twiss performed their famous intensity-correlation experiment with two 'coherent' beams of light from a thermal source. They argued that such intensity-correlation must entail an excess of photon arrival-time coincidences over chance ones for the two beams, and went on (with Little) to demonstrate this in an experiment (Twiss, Little and Hanbury Brown 1957). About the same time, Brannen and Ferguson (1956) performed a photon-coincidence experiment with coherent thermal light, and obtained a null result (due to lack of sensitivity).
Third-order Hanbrury Brown—Twiss and double-slit interference experiments with a pseudo-thermal light are performed by recording intensities in single, double and triple optical paths, respectively. The experimental results verifies the theoretical prediction that the indispensable condition for achieving a interference pattern or ghost image in N th-order intensity correlation measurements is the synchronous detection of the same light field by each reference detector, no matter the intensities recorded in one, or two, or N optical paths. It is shown that, when the reference detectors are scanned in the opposite directions, the visibility and resolution of the third-order spatial correlation function of thermal light is much better than that scanned in the same direction, but it is no use for obtaining the N th-order interference pattern or ghost image in the thermal N th-order interference or ghost imaging.
An intensity-correlation experiment is proposed to test the second-order coherence of laser light from a cw-operated laser based on the Glauber formalism. The calculation utilizes the known form of the density matrix for radiation from a randomly excited source such as a discharge tube which is equivalent to filtered black-body radiation, and represents the laser radiation field by a coherent state. The intensity correlation calculated exhibits the standard Hanbury Brown-Twiss term and an extra term due to intensity interference between the Fourier components of the thermal field and the laser mode.
Optical interferometry was at the heart of the revolution which ushered in the new era of twentieth century physics. For example, the Michelson interferometer was used to show that there is no detectable motion relative to the ‘ether’; a key experiment in support of special relativity. It is a wonderful tribute to Michelson that the same interferometer concept is central to the gravity-wave detectors which promise to provide new insights into general relativity and astrophysics in the twenty-first century. Similar tales can be told about the Sagnac and Mach–Zehnder interferometers as discussed in this chapter. We further note that the intensity correlation stellar interferometer of Hanbury- Brown and Twiss was a driving force in ushering in the modern era of quantum optics. We are thus motivated to develop the theory of field (amplitude) and photon (intensity) correlation interferometry. In doing so we will find that the subject provides us with an exquisite probe of the micro and macrocosmos, i.e., quantum mechanics and general relativity. With these thoughts in mind we here develop a framework to study the quantum statistical correlations of light. We will motivate the quantum correlation functions of the field operators from the standpoint of photodetection theory. Many experimentally observed quantities, such as photoelectron statistics and the spectral distribution of the field, can be related to the appropriate field correlation functions. These correlation functions are essential in the description of Young's double-slit experiment and the notion of the power spectrum of light.