Effects of counting rate and resolution time on a measuremen.pdfVIP

PHYSICAL REVIEW A 76, 013829 2007 Effects of counting rate and resolution time on a measurement of the intensity correlation function Y. Li, G. Li, Y. C. Zhang, X. Y. Wang, J. Zhang, J. M. Wang, and T. C. Zhang* State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Opto-Electronics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China Received 4 February 2007; revised manuscript received 22 March 2007; published 25 July 2007 Non-photon-number-resolving single-photon-counting modules SPCM’s, also called on-off photon detec- tors, have been used in quantum optics for investigating the properties of various light fields based on the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss HBT experiment. However, for different incident light fields the experimental condi- tions can affect the measured photon statistics. In this paper, the second-order degree of coherence g2, known as the important factor for quantitying a single-photon source, is experimentally investigated by means of the HBT scheme consisting of two SPCM’s. By comparing the results of coherent field with that of the thermal field, we show that the measured g2 is affected by the photon-counting rate and the resolution time from pulsed to continuous wave fields. The proper counting rate and resolution time for characterizing the exact photon statistical properties of input fields are determined. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.013829 PACS numbers: 42.50.Ar Photon-counting detection has been used to determine the sity. Although photon-nu