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Journal of Modern Optics

Second-order statistics of integrated intensities and detected photons, the exact analysis I. Theory

Richard G. Barakat

Published Jan 1, 1996• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We express the exact probability density distribution function as the product of a gamma distribution and a series of associated Laguerre polynomials, with the expansion coefficients determined by moments of the integrated intensity. Orthogonal polynomials with respect to the exact probability distribution function are then expanded in similar fashion. These polynomials are then used to construct an expansion of the joint probability distribution function in the second-order photoelectron statistics. Since the polynomials are identical with the corresponding Laguerre polynomials when the exact probability distribution function is the gamma distribution, the new polynomials are generalized versions of the associated Laguerre polynomials. The joint photoelectron statistics may be studied with these new polynomials.

DOI
10.1080/09500349608232800

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We express the exact probability density distribution function as the product of a gamma distribution and a series of associated Laguerre polynomials, with the expansion coefficients determined by moments of the integrated intensity. Orthogonal polynomials with respect to the exact probability distribution function are then expanded in similar fashion. These polynomials are then used to construct an expansion of the joint probability distribution function in the second-order photoelectron statistics. Since the polynomials are identical with the corresponding Laguerre polynomials when the exact probability distribution function is the gamma distribution, the new polynomials are generalized versions of the associated Laguerre polynomials. The joint photoelectron statistics may be studied with these new polynomials.
Expressions of various joint probability distributions of photoelectrons in terms of the photocount distribution P(n,t1{t}_{1}t1​,t2{t}_{2}t2​) in which n photoelectrons are registered between t1{t}_{1}t1​ and t2{t}_{2}t2​ are systematically obtained with extensive use of an introduced simple notation. The expressions obtained are used to find two pairs of expressions of the second-order and associated intensity correlation functions in terms of P(n,t1{t}_{1}t1​,t2{t}_{2}t2​). Some applications to quantum optics are also made to obtain results in agreement with previous work.
We show that time distributions of photoelectrons can best be described by a generalized probability-density function which we call the probability-density functional. The probability-density functional gives complete information about the statistical properties of any random-point process, and provides the most natural definitions of the ensemble average and generating functional of a quantity distributed in time. Using this functional, we develop a new approach to photoelectron statistics that systematically relates various joint probability distributions of photoelectrons to one another and to the corresponding generating functionals. We demonstrate that this method can be used to derive previously obtained results and we use it to obtain new results. In particular, the amount of information about the statistical properties of photoelectrons that is contained in a probability distribution can be obtained by comparing the corresponding generating functional with the probability-density functional. Further, we examine time derivatives of the probability distribution for the number of counts and develop new relationships for probability distributions of triggered counting. Finally, we apply our results to obtain an ``inverse'' relationship between photon bunching (antibunching) and super-Poisson (sub-Poisson) statistics.
A relation is derived between the probability distribution of the integrated intensity of light incident on a photoelectric detector and that of the emission of n photoelectrons in a time interval (t, t + T) from the properties of a quantized electromagnetic field. Both the direct and the inverse relations are derived, thereby enabling the statistical properties of light to be determined from photoelectric measurements. An explicit expression is given for the coefficients for calculating the moments ( W k) by means of the moments (n J) (] = 1, 2 ..... k). The correctness of the operations in which generalized functions occur is confirmed by some direct calculations. The significance of photoelectric detectors has been increasing of late. Since their response is proportional to the intensity of incident light (to the square of the amplitude of light) (more exactly, to the local mean time value of the intensity), one speaks of quadratic detectors. These detectors are of basic importance in the theory of the coherence of the electromagnetic field, since if we place N such detectors into N different points in space and if we lead the outputs of these detectors to the correlator we can measure the correlation (coherence) effects of the 2N-th order in the given field [1]. Such correlation measurements provide information on the energy distribution in the radiation spectrum [2], the angular dimensions of stars [3], and the state of polarization [4] and also enable the phase of physically important functions (e.g. the scattering amplitudes) [5] to be determined. Although in such experiments the properties of photoelectrons are studied rather than of photons, they reflect the basic properties of photons. Let the probability distribution Of the emission of n photoelectrons in a time interval (t, t + T) be p(n, T, t) - p(n) and let the probability distribution of the quantity W(T, t) = W = J'tt+r I(t') dr', where I(t) is the intensity of linearly polarized light incident on the photodetector (for simplicity we assume that the sensitivity of the photocathode is a = 1), be P(W). The quantity W can be regarded as a classical characteristic of the field, the quantity n represents the quantum characteristic of the field. Then, on the basis of such a semi-classical description, in which the field is described classically, but its interaction is described quantum-wise, one can derive the following relation [6]
The functional formalism, providing a unified treatment of the optical coherence theory is developed for arbitrarily ordered field operators. Multimode ordered expansions of operators in terms of boson amplitude operators as well as integral expansions are discussed. They form a basis of associating a class of s-ordered probability functionals with the density operator of the field. As an application, the distributions of photons and photoelectrons are studied. The generalized photo-detection equation of Perina and Horak (1970) is rederived by using the functional approach. A formula expressing the photocount generating function through the characteristic functional of the field is derived.
Onefold photoelectron counting distributions are evaluated for coherent light scattered by an ensemble of particles. The ensemble contains, in general, a random number of nonidentical particles. Expressions are obtained for the probability density function and the moments of the scattering intensity. These results reduce to those of Pusey, Schaefer, and Koppel when the particles are identical. Photocount probabilities are also evaluated. The variance, coefficient of skewness, and coefficient of excess are evaluated when the probability density of the intensity contributed by each scatterer is specified by a narrow Gaussian distribution centered about the deterministic mean.
Here we explore the link between the moments of the Laguerre polynomials or Laguerre moments and the generalized functions (as the Dirac delta-function and its derivatives), presenting several interesting relations. A useful application is related to a procedure for calculating mean values in quantum optics that makes use of the so-called quasi-probabilities. One of them, the P-distribution , can be represented by a sum over Laguerre moments when the electromagnetic field is in a photon-number state. Consequently, the P-distribution can be expressed in terms of Dirac delta-function and derivatives. More specifically, we found a direct relation between P-distributions and the Laguerre factorial moments .