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Applied Physics Letters

Enhancing visibility and resolution in Nth-order intensity correlation of thermal light

De-Zhong Cao, Jun Xiong, Su-Heng Zhang, Lu-Fang Lin, Lu Gao, Kaige Wang

Published May 19, 2008• 144 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The arbitrary Nth-order intensity correlation measurement with thermal light is both theoretically and experimentally investigated. In a double-slit interference scheme with thermal light, we compare the results for higher- and lower-order intensity correlation and demonstrate that the visibility of the interference pattern can be dramatically enhanced while the resolution can also be improved when the order N becomes larger. The experimental results are in agreement with our theoretical analysis.

DOI
10.1063/1.2919719

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The arbitrary Nth-order intensity correlation measurement with thermal light is both theoretically and experimentally investigated. In a double-slit interference scheme with thermal light, we compare the results for higher- and lower-order intensity correlation and demonstrate that the visibility of the interference pattern can be dramatically enhanced while the resolution can also be improved when the order N becomes larger. The experimental results are in agreement with our theoretical analysis.
A third-order double-slit interference experiment with a pseudothermal light source in the high-intensity limit has been performed by actually recording the intensities in three optical paths. It is shown that not only can the visibility be dramatically enhanced compared to the second-order case as previously theoretically predicted and shown experimentally, but also that the higher visibility is a consequence of the contribution of third-order correlation interaction terms, which is equal to the sum of all contributions from second-order correlation. It is interesting that, when the two reference detectors are scanned in opposite directions, negative values for the third-order correlation term of the intensity fluctuations may appear. The phenomenon can be completely explained by the theory of classical statistical optics and is the first concrete demonstration of the influence of the third-order correlation terms.
A scheme for fourth-order double-slit ghost interference with a pseudo-thermal light source is proposed. It is shown that not only can the visibility be dramatically enhanced compared to the third-order case, but also higher resolution is demonstrated if we scan two of three reference detectors in opposite directions with the same speed, meanwhile another two in identical directions where the speed of one reference detector is twice the other. The results show that the visibility and resolution improvement of the fourth-order ghost interference fringe can be applied to the N th-order ghost imaging.
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.
Multiparticle interference is one of the most surprising consequences of quantum mechanics. In quantum theory, a interference happens between different, yet indistinguishable probability amplitudes. Probability amplitudes can be nonlocal when they are connected with systems including several particles. The interference between these nonlcoal probability amplitudes sometimes can only be understood by quantum theory. In this dissertation, the multiphoton coherence of thermal light is studied, theoretically and experimentally, as the consequences of interference between nonlcoal probability amplitudes. The study showed that the higher order correlation functions of thermal light had higher contrast compared with the lower order correlation functions. For example, the contrast of the Nth order correlation function of thermal light can reach N!:1. This is because in higher order correlation functions there are more cross terms from interference contribute to the correlation peak. In this dissertation, the high contrast property is employed to increase the contrast of thermal light ghost imaging. An experiment showed that the contrast of the third order ghost image is significantly improved compared with that of the second order ghost image.
In this paper, we propose a theoretical scheme of many-ghost imaging in terms of NNNth-order correlated thermal light. We obtain the Gaussian thin lens equations in the many-ghost imaging protocol. We show that it is possible to produce $N\ensuremath{-}1$ ghost images of an object at different places in a nonlocal fashion by means of a higher order correlated imaging process with an NNNth-order correlated thermal source and correlation measurements. We investigate the visibility of the ghost images in the scheme and obtain the upper bounds of the visibility for the NNNth-order correlated thermal-light ghost imaging. It is found that the visibility of the ghost images can be dramatically enhanced when the order of correlation becomes larger. It is pointed out that the many-ghost imaging phenomenon is an observable physical effect induced by higher order coherence or higher order correlations of optical fields.