Statistics of photoelectric pulses for Gaussian-Lorentzian light

Abstract

The practical treatment of statistics for Gaussian-Lorentzian light is studied theoretically and experimentally by using the time interval distribution of photoelectric pulses, which is derived in two approaches that are based on Markovian processes and the generating function of photon counting statistics, taking the experimental conditions into account. The limits of the validity of the Markovian assumption are made clear. In arbitrary light intensity it is valid experimentally to employ the practical generating function of photon counting distribution expressed as the product of an ideal generating function and a Poissonian one.