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Frontiers in Optics

Two-photon super bunching of thermal light

Peilong Hong, Jianbin Liu, Guoquan Zhang

Published Jan 1, 2012• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that it is possible to control the two-photon bunching property of thermal light in a linear scheme by introducing indistinguishable multiple two-photon paths. Two-photon super bunching of thermal light with a bunching peak-to-background ratio larger than 2 has been observed experimentally.
DOI
10.1364/fio.2012.fth3e.6

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We report on the two-photon superbunching effect of thermal light via constructive multiple two-photon path interference, showing the possibility of controlling the bunching property of thermal light in a linear optical system. By inserting nnn pairs of mutually first-order incoherent optical channels as a cascade into the traditional Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometer, the two-photon bunching peak-to-background ratio of thermal light can be increased by up to $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1.{5}^{n}$, surpassing the theoretical upper limit of 2 for a traditional HBT interferometer. Experimentally, the ratio was measured to be $2.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1$ when one pair of optical channels was inserted. Such a scheme can be viewed as a prototype of a two-photon grating.
We propose an experimental scheme in which two orthogonally polarized thermal light beams with antisymmetrical wavefronts are overlapped. The experimental results demonstrate that this setup can focus the beam in two-photon and multiphoton correlation measurements. The focused ``two-photon'' spot possesses subwavelength resolution, surpassing the classical diffraction limit. Since the experimental setup consists of only two right-angle-mirror devices without the help of lenses, the two-photon focusing effect does not apparently rely on the beam focusing. Physically, the phenomenon signifies that the photon bunching can be localized within a very small region through two-photon interference in contrast to the conventional Hanbury Brown--Twiss effect of thermal light. In the higher-order intensity correlation measurement, the multiphoton bunching can be limited within a very small central region while the background is greatly suppressed.
Two-photon bunching and superbunching are important to understanding the physics of ghost imaging and second-order interference of light. With the help of the recently proposed superbunching pseudothermal light, the physics of bunching and superbunching in superbunching pseudothermal light is studied in detail. A special two-photon coincidence count detection system is designed to measure the required two-photon coincidence counts. It is concluded that the two-photon superbunching effect cannot be observed without taking the intensity changing process into account. A similar conclusion holds for two-photon bunching of thermal light. The conclusions are helpful for understanding of the physics of two-photon bunching and superbunching in intensity or photon number fluctuation correlation theory.
In quantum mechanics, photons are bosons -- there is no restriction on the number of them that occupy the same quantum state, so many of them can bunch together, and this is well known as photon bunching effect. However, photon bunching and multiphoton interference of bunched photons have never been directly observed from a broadband thermal chaotic light source. Nevertheless, it has been known that the interference intensity of a number N of bunched photons oscillates with a wavelength of N times shorter than the wavelength of the constituent single photons, which should be observable in Fourier transform spectroscopy. A quantum Fourier transform spectrometer was made based on a Michelson interferometer and a diffraction spectrometer to observe the photon bunching from multiphoton interference of the bunched photons in thermal light. The results demonstrates 2 to 12 bunched photons were observed simultaneously from thousands of wavelengths in the light of a tungsten halogen lamp. The experiment discloses some interesting properties of the bunched photons. The results will provide new insights for advancing the theories of quantum optics, and the new technology opens the way for new precise measurement of photon bunching and multiphoton interference of bunched photons that are in all kinds of light sources or that are generated with quantum entangled photons.
Superposition of multiple indistinguishable two-photon paths is introduced by means of a digital wave front encoding technique to design a spatially phase-correlated wave front of a light field, which could result in a superbunching effect with a bunching peak much larger than 2, the theoretical bunching peak of thermal light. Experimentally, we demonstrated a bunching peak of $11.72\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$ with the digitally designed phase-correlated wave front of classical light, which can be improved further on. A significant improvement of the visibility of the second-order interference fringes and ghost imaging was also experimentally demonstrated. Our method provides a convenient digitally controllable way to implement superposition of multiple different but indistinguishable two-photon paths, and therefore to modify the optical coherence properties of photons. Such a superbunching effect may have potential applications in improving the visibility of correlation interference and imaging, and enhancing the efficiency of two-photon nonlinear effects such as two-photon absorption effect.