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Journal of the Optical Society of America A

Theory of field attenuation in photon detection, with an application to resonance fluorescence

Henk F. Arnoldus, Robertsen A. Riehle

Published Mar 26, 2013• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Detection of photons from electromagnetic radiation can be considered as the appearance of random events on the time axis. When an attenuator is placed in front of the detector, which attenuates the intensity by a factor of α, the statistical properties of the detected photons are altered. We show that simple relations exist between the statistical functions of the photons detected from the attenuated field and the same functions for the photons that would be detected from the unattenuated field. We also derive several recurrence relations for the statistical functions involving their dependence on the parameter α. For photon detection from resonance fluorescence, the parameter α appears naturally as the probability that an emitted photon is detected. In this case, there is no attenuator, but the parameter α appears in the same way. We show that the probability for the emission (α=1) of n photons in a given time interval can easily be computed, and with the general theory we can then obtain the result for the detection of n photons (α<1).

DOI
10.1364/josaa.30.000749

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Detection of photons from electromagnetic radiation can be considered as the appearance of random events on the time axis. When an attenuator is placed in front of the detector, which attenuates the intensity by a factor of α, the statistical properties of the detected photons are altered. We show that simple relations exist between the statistical functions of the photons detected from the attenuated field and the same functions for the photons that would be detected from the unattenuated field. We also derive several recurrence relations for the statistical functions involving their dependence on the parameter α. For photon detection from resonance fluorescence, the parameter α appears naturally as the probability that an emitted photon is detected. In this case, there is no attenuator, but the parameter α appears in the same way. We show that the probability for the emission (α=1) of n photons in a given time interval can easily be computed, and with the general theory we can then obtain the result for the detection of n photons (α<1).
A quantum-mechanical theory of photon detection is presented which takes fully into account the attenuation of the field due to the detection process. The time evolution of the joint quantum state of the detector and the field is found, to all orders in perturbation theory. Formulas are derived for the probabilities of absorbing specified numbers of photons within a given time interval, and for the correlations in the positions and times at which absorptions take place. The results are free from the inconsistencies which arise in the conventional theory of photon detection, and remain valid even when the field becomes appreciably attenuated during the experiment. It is found that an initially coherent field state remains coherent during its interaction with a given detector, and that its amplitude becomes attenuated by an amount which is completely independent of the number of counts which the detector records. This independence is shown to be a simple consequence of the Poisson quantum-number distribution of coherent fields. The counting statistics for arbitrary fields are expressed in a way which shows explicitly the relationship between the attenuation of the field and the absorption of quanta by the detector. The analysis is performed by first treating the case in which the field is confined within a homogeneous detecting medium throughout the experiment, and then generalizing to the case in which the field spends a limited amount of time in a spatially localized detecting region. The detector is assumed to consist of harmonic oscillators, which are shown to represent a suitable formal model for the absorption of radiation by large numbers of conventional detecting atoms.
The theory of photon-number statistics in resonance fluorescence is treated, starting with the general formula for the emission probability of nnn photons during a given time interval TTT. The results fully confirm formerly obtained results by Cook that were based on the theory of atomic motion in a traveling wave. General expressions for the factorial moments are derived and explicit results for the mean and the variance are given. It is explicitly shown that the distribution function tends to a Gaussian when TTT becomes much larger than the natural lifetime of the excited atom. The speed of convergence towards the Gaussian is found to be typically slow, that is, the third normalized central moment (or the skewness) is proportional to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{2}}$. However, numerical results illustrate that the overall features of the distribution function are already well represented by a Gaussian when TTT is larger than a few natural lifetimes only, at least if the intensity of the exciting field is not too small and its detuning is not too large.
Photons in resonance fluorescence from a single atom are correlated, and this affects the photon detection statistics. We consider the time dependence of the variance for the number of counts in a time interval [0, T], and we show that there exist Poisson points for certain values of the atomic parameters. At these points, the variance equals the average, like for a Poisson process. We also show that the conditional probability density for the detection of the nth photon after a detection of a photon at time zero can be obtained from the conditional probability density for the first photon, and we illustrate this by computing several conditional probability densities for a special case of interest. The unconditional probability density for the detection of the nth photon can be obtained from the conditional probability densities and the probability for detecting n photons in [0, T] can subsequently be found from the unconditional probability densities.
The problem of resonant interaction between an electromagnetic radiation field and a vibronic system, such as a molecule or a localized electronphonon system, is considered. The vibronic coupling is assumed to result from displaced and distorted potential energy surfaces for the vibrational motion in the electronic quantum states involved in the resonant interaction with the radiation field. Furthermore, the vibrational energy relaxation is taken into account without assumptions about Markovian-type relaxation. In order to study correlation properties of higher than second order in the electric field strength of the light emitted a method of calculation of the expectation value of an arbitrary product combination of effective time evolution operators of the vibronic system is developed. The calculations are performed by utilizing Feynman's disentangling and operator ordering techniques and yield closed solutions in the low-temperature limit. The theory is used for studying the intensity and the normally ordered intensity correlation function of the resonance fluorescence light from a two-atom molecule excited by a relatively weak laser field, which undergoes phase fluctuations. It is shown that the vibronic coupling can give rise to an anticorrelation effect which is substantially stronger than in the case of resonance fluorescence from an atom. For the case of small vibrational damping a general formula which directly connects the asymptotic long-time behaviour of the normalized intensity correlation function with the vibrational relaxation in the molecule is deduced. It should be convenient for the determination of very small vibrational decay rates.
We have studied the statistics of fluorescent photons emitted by a two-state atom in a laser beam in the limit where either the detuning or the Rabi frequency is large. For this case, the spectrum of resonance fluorescence has three separated lines. We have obtained closed form expressions for the conditional probability density for the emission of the nth photon and for the probability for emission of n photons in a time interval [0,T]. Our solutions are complementary to the known solutions for the case of perfect resonance.
The photon counting statistics of the fluorescence of a single atom driven by a resonant coherent field has been calculated and the results checked experimentally. The authors examine the effect of detuning the coherent field and/or the effect of an additional thermal field on the photon counting statistics. They work with a master equation that they have used previously and derive exact results for the probability distribution function P(n, tau ) for the emitted photons and for the normalised second factorial moment Q. The subPoissonian character of the photon statistics, for which Q<0, is most pronounced for weak thermal fields or weak detuned coherent fields. For short counting times tau the statistic is dominated by any spontaneous emission that occurs, as expected. Increasing numbers of black-body photons tend to increase the Q values, as might be expected-especially in the case of an initially excited atom-but no simple rule emerges. The recent experiments in the microwave region on Rydberg atoms interacting with thermal radiation in (low-Q) cavities offers the possibility of observing thermal-field effects on the photon counting statistics.