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Chinese Science Bulletin

Photon statistics measurement by use of single photon detection

Liantuan Xiao, Yuqiang Jiang, Yanting Zhao, Wangbao Yin, Jianming Zhao, Suotang Jia

Published Jan 1, 2004• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The direct measurement of the Mandel parameter of weak laser pulses, with 10 ns pulse duration time and the mean number of photon per pulse $$\bar n$$ being approximately 0.1, is investigated by recording every photocount event. With the Hanbury Brown and Twiss detection scheme, and not more than one photon per pulse being detected during the sample time by single-photon counters, we have found that the single mode diode laser with driving current lower than the threshold yields a sub-Poissonian statistics. In addition, when the diode laser driving current is much higher than the threshold, it is validated that the Mandel parameterQ C of the Poissonian coherent state is nearly $$ - \bar n/2$$ . The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical prediction considering the measurement error.

DOI
10.1007/bf03184001

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The direct measurement of the Mandel parameter of weak laser pulses, with 10 ns pulse duration time and the mean number of photon per pulse nˉ\bar nnˉ being approximately 0.1, is investigated by recording every photocount event. With the Hanbury Brown and Twiss detection scheme, and not more than one photon per pulse being detected during the sample time by single-photon counters, we have found that the single mode diode laser with driving current lower than the threshold yields a sub-Poissonian statistics. In addition, when the diode laser driving current is much higher than the threshold, it is validated that the Mandel parameterQ C of the Poissonian coherent state is nearly −nˉ/2 - \bar n/2−nˉ/2 . The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical prediction considering the measurement error.
The direct measurement of the Mandel para-meter of weak laser pulses, with 10 ns pulse duration timeand the mean number of photon per pulse h-being approxi-mately 0.1, is investigated by recording every photocountevent. With the Hanbury Brown and Twiss detection scheme,and not more than one photon per pulse being detected dur-ing the sample time by single-photon counters, we havefound that the single mode diode laser with driving currentlower than the threshold yields a sub-Poissonian statistics. Inaddition, when the diode laser driving current is muchhigher than the threshold, it is validated that the Mandelparameter Qc of the Poissonian coherent state is nearly-n/2. The experimental results are in good agreement withtheoretical prediction considering the measurement error.
Faint laser pulses are practical signal sources in quantum key distribution. The photon statistics has been measured by recording every photo-counts moment and leading directly to the Mandel parameter of the photon distribution. Two different types operation of a single mode laser diode have been considered: either direct pulsing of the driving current or CW emission followed by pulse-shaping using an acousto-optic modulator. In both cases, it has been found that for practical attenuations, the photon distribution in each light pulse follows a poissonian statistics.
We studied intensity fluctuations of a single photon source relying on the pulsed excitation of the fluorescence of a single molecule at room temperature. We directly measured the Mandel parameter Q(T) over 4 orders of magnitude of observation time scale T by recording every photocount. On time scale of a few excitation periods, sub-Poissonian statistics is clearly observed and the probablility of two-photons events is 10 times smaller than Poissonian pulses. On longer times, blinking in the fluorescence, due to the molecular triplet state, produces an excess of noise.
An efficient scheme for photon statistics measurement is presented based on the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss configuration. We set the sampling time Ts to satisfy the relationship of TslTdlTm, where Td is the dead time of each detector and Tm is the laser pulse repetition period. And each single photon detector cannot detect more than one photon in each pulse. The approach can sufficiently eliminate the influences of the detector's dead time on photon statistics. At last, the photon statistics of coherent field is experimentally determined.
Photon anti-bunching, measured via the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss experiment, is one of the key signatures of quantum light and is tied to sub-Poissonian photon number statistics. Recently, it has been reported that photon anti-bunching or conditional sub-Poissonian photon number statistics can be obtained via second-order interference of mutually incoherent weak lasers and heralding based on photon counting [Phys. Rev. A92, 033855 (2015)10.1103/PhysRevA.92.033855; Opt. Express24, 19574 (2016)10.1364/OE.24.019574; https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.08161]. Here, we report theoretical analysis on the limits of manipulating conditional photon statistics via interference of weak lasers. It is shown that conditional photon number statistics can become super-Poissonian in such a scheme. We, however, demonstrate explicitly that it cannot become sub-Poissonian, i.e., photon anti-bunching cannot be obtained in such a scheme. We point out that incorrect results can be obtained if one does not properly account for seemingly negligible higher-order photon number expansions of the coherent state.
Optical mixing experiments show the ability of amplifying a weak optical signal by superposing it with a stronger one. This principle has been demonstrated also for weak signals at the quantum level, down to a single photon. In the present communication it is suggested that the sensitivity of optical mixing between a strong macroscopic source and a single photon can be further enhanced as to allow the sensing the wavefront of the photon's mode simultaneously at two or more locations. Key conditions for that detection is reducing the active size of the detectors below the typical size of the transverse modes, and performing an optical intensity correlation measurement of the Hanbury Brown and Twiss type. Due to the inherent amplification effect of the mixing process, a macroscopic signal is extracted, out of which the photon wave-front characterization at more than one location is achievable with good fidelity even for a single photon emission event. A basic scheme is proposed for the demonstration of the effect, which is analyzed based on a simple quantum model. The validity of the model is confirmed by comparison with previous theoretical and experimental reports involving single photon sources.