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Physical Review A

Resonant light scattering from single atoms: Sub-Poissonian statistics versus antibunching

Theodore Hodapp, G. W. Greenlees, M. A. Finn, D. A. Lewis

Published Mar 1, 1990• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Two manifestations of the quantum nature of coherent, resonant light scattering from atoms are photon antibunching and sub-Poissonian statistics. The existence of both effects has been demonstrated previously; in the present work, using individual barium atoms, measurements of the dependence of the latter effect on the frequency of the radiation field are presented. The distinction between the two phenomena is demonstrated by data that exhibit antibunching, yet have a photon counting distribution with variance equal to the Poisson value.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.41.2698

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Two manifestations of the quantum nature of coherent, resonant light scattering from atoms are photon antibunching and sub-Poissonian statistics. The existence of both effects has been demonstrated previously; in the present work, using individual barium atoms, measurements of the dependence of the latter effect on the frequency of the radiation field are presented. The distinction between the two phenomena is demonstrated by data that exhibit antibunching, yet have a photon counting distribution with variance equal to the Poisson value.
The statistical fluctuations of light can, under certain circumstances, exhibit a number of interesting nonclassical features. These include photon antibunching, sub-Poissonian statistics, and squeezing, all of which exist only in a quantum field. The three effects are distinct, and do not necessarily go together, although the first two are sometimes mistakenly treated as interchangeable. Both photon antibunching and sub-Poissonian statistics have been observed in experiments on resonance fluorescence from single atoms, which is described. Squeezing has not yet been seen experimentally, although many nonlinear processes are expected to give rise to it. The squeezed state can be recognized in heterodyne or homodyne experiments, where the squeezing becomes manifest as sub-Poissonian photon fluctuations.
Photons spontaneously emitted from single atoms are necessarily antibunched in time. The statistics of the photon time record, however, can show sub-Poissonian or even super-Poissonian statistics and depend strongly on the time interval used for analysis. In this work we have analyzed photon arrival times from resonantly excited barium atoms in an atomic beam observed under single-atom conditions. The time-interval dependence of photon statistics is presented, showing the connection between antibunching and sub-Poissonian statistics (at times comparable to the spontaneous-decay lifetime of the atom) as well as the evolution of the statistics in the long-time limit.
The concepts listed in the title are introduced and clarified. The relations among them are pointed out. It is shown that the corresponding optical phenomena are definitely of a quantum nature. The basic quantities which are measured in correlation optical experiments are discussed. Manifestations of photon antibunching and of sub-Poisson photon statistics in the recording of delayed coincidences, in the distribution of photon counts, and in intensity fluctuation spectra are analyzed. (More precisely, what is involved is the spectrum of fluctuations in the photocurrent; all the results of the theoretical analysis in this review are expressed in terms of directly measurable quantities.) A diagram technique for calculating the correlation characteristics of the radiation from a polyatomic system is outlined. Photon correlations in nonlinear resonance fluorescence are analyzed. There is a discussion of approaches to the development of macroscopic sources of radiation with sub-Poisson photon statistics: the production of a squeezed state of a field in phase-sensitive parametric effects in nonlinear optics and the introduction of repulsive statistics in luminescence excitation events and in the pumping of a laser. Experiments in these directions which had been reported through April 1986 are discussed. The practical importance of reducing the quantum noise in radiation for extremely precise measurements and for optical data transmission is pointed out.
We study sub-Poissonian photon statistics of light in interaction of a single mode radiation, initially either in a coherent state or in a superposed coherent state with an assembly of two-level atoms using the Hamiltonian, H = ω(a+a + Sz) + g(aS+ + a+ S–) in natural units, where a+ and a are creation and annihilation operators, Sz, S ± are the collective Dicke operators, g is the coupling constant, and ω is the energy of the photons and also the separation between the two atomic levels. We study the cases of (i) a single two-level and (ii) of two two-level atoms interacting with a single mode coherent or superposed coherent radiation. We find that for large coupling time gt, Fano factor shows collapses and revival phenomena, and that the variation is large for small mean number of photons. We also find that in the case of two two-level atoms, photon statistics shows larger sub-Poissonian than the case of a single two-level atom, and that there is no definite relationship between squeezing and sub-Poissonian photon statistics of light.