Measurement of the biphoton second-order correlation function with analog detectors

Abstract

An experimental scheme and data processing approaches are proposed for measuring by analog photo detectors the normalized second-order correlation function of the biphoton field generated under spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Obtained results are especially important for quantum SPDC-based technologies in the long-wave spectral ranges, where it is difficult to use the single-photon detector at least in one of the two biphoton channels. The methods of discrimination of analog detection samples are developed to eliminate the negative influence of the detection noises and get quantitatively true values of both the correlation function and the detector quantum efficiency. The methods are demonstrated depending on whether two single-photon avalanche photo detectors are used in both SPDC channels, or at least one single-photon detector is replaced by a photo-multiplier tube which cannot operate in the photon counting mode.

Measuring the pth-Order Correlation Function of Light Field via Two-Level Atoms

“…From this experiment, theoretical and experimental studies of the nonclassical nature of light became a very hot area of research, which is also known as quantum optics [52]. In addition, methods or devices for measuring the second-order correlation function of the optical field include random phase modulation methods [53], analog detectors [54], linear detectors [55,56], and reversed-wavefront Young interferometers [57].…”