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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Comparison of coherence properties of thermal electrons and blackbody radiation

Mark P. Silverman

Published Jan 1, 1987• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The profound distinctions between photon and Fermion optics appear in the second-order coherence properties of the particle field.1 Particularly significant are blackbody radiation2 and thermal electron fields; the correlation functions are uniquely specified by temperature θ and chemical potential u. Differences in the second-order coherence arise principally from considerations of (a) particle conservation (photons are not conserved; electron conservation is rigorous and tantamount to charge conservation); (b) tensorial character of the fields (electromagnetic fields are vector-valued; electron fields are spinor-valued); (c) quantum statistics (photons and electrons are subject to Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, respectively).

DOI
10.1364/oam.1987.tui4

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The profound distinctions between photon and Fermion optics appear in the second-order coherence properties of the particle field.1 Particularly significant are blackbody radiation2 and thermal electron fields; the correlation functions are uniquely specified by temperature θ and chemical potential u. Differences in the second-order coherence arise principally from considerations of (a) particle conservation (photons are not conserved; electron conservation is rigorous and tantamount to charge conservation); (b) tensorial character of the fields (electromagnetic fields are vector-valued; electron fields are spinor-valued); (c) quantum statistics (photons and electrons are subject to Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, respectively).
The electromagnetic correlation tensors of second order is calculated for a superposition of a single coherent mode and blackbody radiation, using Glauber's formula for the density operator of superimposed multi-mode fields. In order to investigate the temporal coherence of this particular radiation, upon restricting to the electric correlation tensors, the complex degree of coherence is evaluated at various temperatures of blackbody radiation. The results are shown in several figures. For comparison the complex degree of coherence of blackbody radiation is also shown in the figure.
Expressions are derived for the electromagnetic correlation tensors of blackbody radiation defined on the basis of the theory of the quantized field. Correlation functions of all order are considered, but second-order ones are discussed in detail; it is found that these are identical with those obtained on the basis of semi-classical theory in part I of this investigation. This result illustrates a recent theorem of E.C.G. Sudarshan relating to the equivalence between semiclassical and quantum mechanical description of statistical light beams.
Interference experiments characterized by the degree of first-order coherence (Young’s fringes, Fresnel, and Fraunhofer diffraction, etc.) have been performed with massive particles, in particular electrons and neutrons, as well as with light. Optical intensity interference or correlation experiments characterized by the degree of second-order coherence have not yet been performed with particles. The theory for such experiments shows striking differences in the behavior of electrons compared with that of light deriving from the differences in quantum statistics and charge. Photons are neutral bosons. They can be prepared in states that exhibit bunching, no bunching, or antibunching; they are unaffected by the presence of electromagnetic potentials. Electrons are charged fermions. Theory indicates that they exhibit antibunching regardless of the coherence of the source, and that their degree of second-order coherence can be influenced by electromagnetic fields through which they do not pass. A remarkable example is the Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment with electrons that have interacted locally with the vector potential of an inaccessible magnetic field. The electron intensity correlation at two detectors is shown to be sensitive to the confined magnetic flux; experimental conditions differ considerably from those of the well-known Aharonov-Bohm effect.
This article presents a review of coherence properties of electromagnetic fields and their measurements, with special emphasis on the optical region of the spectrum. Analyses based on both the classical and quantum theories are described. After a brief historical introduction, the elementary concepts which are frequently employed in the discussion of interference phenomena are summarized. The measure of second-order coherence is then introduced in connection with the analysis of a simple interference experiment and some of the more important second-order coherence effects are studied. Their uses in stellar interferometry and interference spectroscopy are described. Analysis of partial polarization from the standpoint of correlation theory is also outlined. The general statistical description of the field is discussed in some detail. The recently discovered universal "diagonal" representation of the density operator for free fields is also considered and it is shown how, with the help of the associated generalized phase-space distribution function, the quantum-mechanical correlation functions may be expressed in the same form as the classical ones. The sections which follow deal with the statistical properties of thermal and nonthermal light, and with the temporal and spatial coherence of blackbody radiation. Later sections, dealing with fourth- and higher-order coherence effects include a discussion of the photoelectric detection process. Among the fourth-order effects described in detail are bunching phenomena, the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect and its application to astronomy. The article concludes with a discussion of various transient superposition effects, such as light beats and interference fringes produced by independent light beams.
We have now derived a number of general properties of a quantized electromagnatic field, and have encountered some useful formalisms for treating certain problems in quantum optics. We have introduced the correlation functions of the field, and we have seen in a general way how they are related to measurements. In selecting examples for illustration we have tended to focus our attention largely on certain idealized quantum states of the field, such as Fock states and coherent states. However, there exists an important class of optical fields with simple properties, the so-called thermal fields, which includes most fields commonly encountered in practice, that has not yet been discussed. These fields are produced by sources in thermal equilibrium, and they exhibit many features that can be treated almost exactly in our formalism. We now turn our attention to such fields. Blackbody radiation The density operator Blackbody radiation is the name given to an electromagnetic field in thermal equilibrium with a large thermal reservoir or heat bath at some temperature T . By definition, such a field is assumed to be coupled to the heat bath, and it is therefore not a strictly free field in the sense of the previous chapters. However, the coupling can be as weak as we wish, and it is well known from the general theory of statistical thermodynamics that the properties of a system with many degrees of freedom in thermal equilibrium (described by a canonical ensemble) are often similar to those of an equivalent isolated system (described by a microcanonical ensemble).
The Planck’s law of blackbody radiation is derived in several methods in this paper. The original Planck’s derivation in his 1900 paper, the derivation by Einstein, and another derivation based on the Bose-Einstein statistics are reviewed with comments on each derivation. Statistical properties of radiation are briefly reviewed in the second part of the paper. Different concepts of photon statistics are applied on the thermal (chaotic) light and laser light. Nonclassical properties of light that manifest its quantum nature are briefly highlighted with a short review of the experimental evidence embodied in ……….. 1-Introduction and historical perspective It was Robert Kirchhoff who first argued in 1859 that the thermal radiation of the blackbody was of a fundamental nature.1 Since that time, several attempts were made to derive a precise relation that matches the experimental results. Wien, suggested that the radiation density per