Measuring high-order coherences of chaotic and coherent optical states

Published

August 24, 2009

Author(s)

Martin J. Stevens, Burm Baek, Eric Dauler, Andrew J. Kerman, Richard J. Molnar, Scott A. Hamilton, Karl Berggren, Richard P. Mirin, Sae Woo Nam

Abstract

We demonstrate a new approach to measuring high-order temporal coherences that uses a four-element superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) in which four independent, single-photon-sensitive elements are interleaved over a single spatial mode of the optical beam. We show the power of this technique by measuring nth-order coherences (n = 2,3,4) both of a chaotic, pseudo-thermal source that exhibits high-order photon bunching (up to n!), and of a coherent state source for which all coherences are ~1. Our results demonstrate that using multiple detector elements to parse an optical beam over dimensions smaller than the minimum diffraction-limited spot size can be equivalent--and in some cases superior--to using multiple beamsplitters and discrete detectors that each sample a replica of the entire mode.

Proceedings Title

CQIQC III: Conference on Quantum Information and Quantum Control

Conference Dates

August 24-27, 2009

Conference Location

Toronto

Pub Type

Conferences

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Citation

Stevens, M. , Baek, B. , Dauler, E. , Kerman, A. , Molnar, R. , Hamilton, S. , Berggren, K. , Mirin, R. and Nam, S. (2009), Measuring high-order coherences of chaotic and coherent optical states, CQIQC III: Conference on Quantum Information and Quantum Control, Toronto, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=903081 (Accessed October 10, 2025)