Physical Review A

Nth -order coherence of thermal light

Jianbin Liu, Yanhua H. Shih

Published Feb 18, 2009• 65 citations

Abstract

This paper presents a unified theory for the $N\text{th}$-order $(N\ensuremath{\geqslant}1)$ coherence of thermal light. We wish to show that the $N\text{th}$-order coherence or correlation of thermal light is the result of $N$-photon interference, which involves the superposition of $N$-photon probability amplitudes, corresponding to different yet indistinguishable ways of triggering a $N$-photon joint detection event. The near-field third-order spatial coherence of thermal light is calculated and its use suggested for verifying the $N$-photon interference theory.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.79.023819

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Physical Review A

Nth -order coherence of thermal light

Jianbin Liu, Yanhua H. Shih

Published Feb 18, 2009• 65 citations

Publisher

Abstract

This paper presents a unified theory for the

N\text{th}

-order

(N\ensuremath{\geqslant}1)

coherence of thermal light. We wish to show that the

N\text{th}

-order coherence or correlation of thermal light is the result of

N

-photon interference, which involves the superposition of

N

-photon probability amplitudes, corresponding to different yet indistinguishable ways of triggering a

N

-photon joint detection event. The near-field third-order spatial coherence of thermal light is calculated and its use suggested for verifying the

N

-photon interference theory.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.79.023819

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This paper presents a unified theory for the

N\text{th}

-order

(N\ensuremath{\geqslant}1)

coherence of thermal light. We wish to show that the

N\text{th}

-order coherence or correlation of thermal light is the result of

N

-photon interference, which involves the superposition of

N

-photon probability amplitudes, corresponding to different yet indistinguishable ways of triggering a

N

-photon joint detection event. The near-field third-order spatial coherence of thermal light is calculated and its use suggested for verifying the

N

-photon interference theory.

6

times greater if the photodetection events fall in the coherence time and coherence area of the radiation field than if they do not. From the viewpoint of quantum mechanics, the observed phenomenon is the result of three-photon interference. By making use of this property, we measured the three-photon thermal light lensless ghost image of a double spot and achieved higher visibility compared with the two-photon thermal light ghost image.

In this paper, we propose a theoretical scheme of many-ghost imaging in terms of

N

th-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

N

th-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

N

th-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.