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Laser and Particle Beams

Dynamics of photon number quantum fluctuations in multiphoton processes

Valentine I. Zakharov, Vladimir G. Tyuterev

Published Feb 1, 1987• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper discusses the principles of reduction of quantum noise in optical radiation. The dynamics of photon number fluctuations in direct and cascade two-photon processes is investigated. The paper considers the cases of absorption and emission for the fields originally prepared in coherent and thermal states. It is shown that photon antibunching and bunching should occur for the passed radiation. The photon antibunching effect is only in definite time intervals of field interaction with resonance absorbing or emitting systems. The possible cases of accumulation of photon antibunching effects are considered.

DOI
10.1017/s0263034600002469

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This paper discusses the principles of reduction of quantum noise in optical radiation. The dynamics of photon number fluctuations in direct and cascade two-photon processes is investigated. The paper considers the cases of absorption and emission for the fields originally prepared in coherent and thermal states. It is shown that photon antibunching and bunching should occur for the passed radiation. The photon antibunching effect is only in definite time intervals of field interaction with resonance absorbing or emitting systems. The possible cases of accumulation of photon antibunching effects are considered.
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The possibility of a practically total reduction of quantum photon fluctuations in cw laser radiation is discussed. This effect appears as a result of two-photon radiation absorption using a resonance transition in atoms excited from the ground state to the upper level, relaxing to the other states. For this case the possibility of induced two-photon emission is excluded, that is, the source of additional photon number fluctuations in a field mode.1 In this process the Fock states with the photon number n ≥ 2 are continuously reduced from the coherent state of the excited field. For the large time values of interaction the Fock states |n = 0 > and |n = 1> remain in the field. The effect of spin orientations of photons of the excited field on the quantum noise reduction process for the two-photon absorption by atoms on the transitions between the S → S and S → D terms is analyzed. The possibility of transformation of coherent and thermal fields (λ ≃ 6022 Å and λ = 5787 Å) into quasi-Fock states, as a result of its two-photon resonance absorption by Na homogeneous vapor, is considered.
The concepts listed in the title are introduced and clarified. The relations among them are pointed out. It is shown that the corresponding optical phenomena are definitely of a quantum nature. The basic quantities which are measured in correlation optical experiments are discussed. Manifestations of photon antibunching and of sub-Poisson photon statistics in the recording of delayed coincidences, in the distribution of photon counts, and in intensity fluctuation spectra are analyzed. (More precisely, what is involved is the spectrum of fluctuations in the photocurrent; all the results of the theoretical analysis in this review are expressed in terms of directly measurable quantities.) A diagram technique for calculating the correlation characteristics of the radiation from a polyatomic system is outlined. Photon correlations in nonlinear resonance fluorescence are analyzed. There is a discussion of approaches to the development of macroscopic sources of radiation with sub-Poisson photon statistics: the production of a squeezed state of a field in phase-sensitive parametric effects in nonlinear optics and the introduction of repulsive statistics in luminescence excitation events and in the pumping of a laser. Experiments in these directions which had been reported through April 1986 are discussed. The practical importance of reducing the quantum noise in radiation for extremely precise measurements and for optical data transmission is pointed out.
The quantum statistical properties of two field modes are studied for a three-level atom with multiphoton transition interacting with two cavity fields. By numerical calculations it is shown that, in the continual absorbing and emitting photons of the interacting system a "photon submergence," the bunching and antibunching effects of two modes, exists. In addition, the impact of the atom's one transition photon numbers and the initial mean photon number of two modes on these effects are discussed in detail.
Multiphoton interaction of single-mode squeezed-state light and a two-level atom is considered based on the K-photon Jaynes–Cummings model. Time evolution of quantum fluctuation and photon statistical properties of the initial squeezing light are discussed. It is found that through interaction with a two-level atom, larger squeezing levels cannot be achieved in one-photon or multiphoton processes. For photon antibunching behavior of the light field, it is shown that a smaller initial squeezing level and an appropriately larger coherent part of the initial average photon number of the radiation field favor the generation of this nonclassical behavior, especially in the lower-order interaction processes.