Waiting time probabilities for detecting the first photon, starting at an arbitrary instant, from stationary quantum and classical light sources, and information they contain are discussed and analytic expressions for several sources are presented.
Wait-time distributions for the nth photodetection at a detector illuminated by a stationary light beam are studied. Both unconditional measurements, initiated at an arbitrary instant, and conditional measurements, initiated upon a photodetection, are considered. Simple analytic expressions are presented for several classical and quantum sources of light and are used to quantify and compare photon sequences generated by them. These distributions can be measured in photon-counting experiments and are useful in characterizing and generating photon sequences with prescribed statistics. The effects of nonunit detection efficiency are also discussed, and curves are presented to illustrate the behavior.
A simple model is introduced to simulate the detection of cavity radiation with the detector placed outside the cavity. Explicit expressions, in terms of initial photon-number distribution, for the time-dependent distributions of photoelectron number and conditional as well as unconditional waiting times are derived. The effect of photodetection on the quantum state of the radiation in the present arrangement is found to be unchanged from that with the detector placed inside the cavity. The well-known Q parameter introduced by Mondel [Opt. Lett. 4, 205 (1979)] is found to be exactly equal to the change in the expectation value of photon number due to the detection of a photon. Photon bunching or antibunching, reflecting classical or nonclassical radiation, is determined by whether conditional waiting time is less or greater than unconditional waiting time. When this criterion is applied to three specific examples, namely, coherent, thermal, and number states, the results are as expected.