摘要
We investigate the fourth-order spatial correlation properties of pseudo-thermal light in the photon counting regime, and apply the Klyshko advanced-wave picture to describe the process of four-photon coincidence counting measurement. We deduce the theory of a proof-of-principle four-photon coincidence counting configuration, and find that if the four randomly radiated photons come from the same radiation area and are indistinguishable in principle, the fourth-order correlation of them is 24 times larger than that when four photons come from different radiation areas. In addition, we also show that the higher-order spatial correlation function can be decomposed into multiple lower-order correlation functions, and the contrast and visibility of low-order correlation peaks are less than those of higher orders, while the resolutions all are identical. This study may be useful for better understanding the four-photon interference and multi-channel correlation imaging.
We investigate the fourth-order spatial correlation properties of pseudo-thermal light in the photon counting regime, and apply the Klyshko advanced-wave picture to describe the process of four-photon coincidence counting measurement. We deduce the theory of a proof-of-principle four-photon coincidence counting configuration, and find that if the four randomly radiated photons come from the same radiation area and are indistinguishable in principle, the fourth-order correlation of them is 24 times larger than that when four photons come from different radiation areas. In addition, we also show that the higher-order spatial correlation function can be decomposed into multiple lower-order correlation functions, and the contrast and visibility of low-order correlation peaks are less than those of higher orders, while the resolutions all are identical. This study may be useful for better understanding the four-photon interference and multi-channel correlation imaging.
基金
Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant No 2012CB921804, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 61078002, 61078020, 11104214, 61108017, 11104216 and 61205112, the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China under Grant Nos 20110201110006, 20110201120005 and 20100201120031, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Ministry of Education of China under Grant Nos 2012jdhz05, 2011jdhz07, xjj2011083, xjj2011084, xjj2012080 and xjj2013089, and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No 2012M521773.
