Time distribution of photons from coherent and Gaussian sources

G. Present, D. B. Scarl

Measurement of the two-photon time distribution in a mixture of light from a He-Ne laser and a Gaussian source of the same central frequency agrees well with the prediction of coherence theory when the laser is represented by a single coherent state. The peak in the distribution near zero time difference is made up of contributions due to the second-order interference between pairs of Gaussian photons and between laser and Gaussian photons.

D. B. Scarl

T McLean

Tom Kuusela

We describe photon statistics experiments using pseudothermal light that can be performed in an undergraduate physics laboratory. We examine the light properties in terms of a second-order coherence function, as determined either by measuring the light intensity as a function of time or via coincidence analysis of a pair of photon detectors. We determine the coherence time and intensity distribution of the pseudothermal light source that exhibits either Gaussian or non-Gaussian statistics as a function of their optical parameters, and then compare the results with theoretical predictions. The simple photodiode method can be used for the qualitative analysis of the coherence time, but more accurate measurements are achieved using the coincidence method.

Jacques Bures, Claude A. Delisle, Andrzej Zardecki

The statistics of the sum of photocounts in partially coherent Gaussian light is investigated. Both the case of detection at $L$ discrete points and the case of an extended surface of detection are considered. The combinatorial-analysis approach is applied to derive the moments and cumulants of the distribution. They all can be expressed in terms of the second-order correlation function. The results are generally valid independent of the ratio of the observation time to the coherence time of light. A comparison between the theoretical moments and the moments computed from experimental distributions as a function of the detector surface is carried out with the help of a pseudothermal source.

Ramón López–Peña, Vladimir I. Man’ko, Giuseppe Marmo +2 more