Superthermal photon bunching in terms of simple probability distributions

Abstract

We analyze the second-order photon autocorrelation function g (2) with respect to the photon probability distribution and discuss the generic features of a distribution that result in superthermal photon bunching (g (2) > 2). Superthermal photon bunching has been reported for a number of optical microcavity systems that exhibit processes like superradiance or mode competition. We show that a superthermal photon number distribution cannot be constructed from the principle of maximum entropy, if only the intensity and the second-order autocorrelation are given. However, for bimodal systems an unbiased superthermal distribution can be constructed from second-order correlations and the intensities alone. Our findings suggest modeling superthermal single-mode distributions by a mixture of a thermal and a lasing like state and thus reveal a generic mechanism in the photon probability distribution responsible for creating superthermal photon bunching. We relate our general considerations to a physical system, a (single-emitter) bimodal laser, and show that its statistics can be approximated and understood within our proposed model. Furthermore the excellent agreement of the statistics of the bimodal laser and our model reveal that the bimodal laser is an ideal source of bunched photons, in the sense that it can generate statistics that contain no other features but the superthermal bunching. arXiv:1802.06417v2 [physics.optics]

Physics and Applications of High‐β Micro‐ and Nanolasers

“…The experimental findings have been confirmed by full quantum calculations based on a microscopic semiconductor Hamiltonian [ 138 ] and by semiclassical calculations. [ 130 ] Both approaches support a two‐state model: [ 130,138,145 ] In state 1, the strong mode is lasing with large intensity and the weak mode is nonlasing with relatively small intensity (not necessarily emitting thermal light [ 146 ] ); in state 2, it is the other way round. This model is most intuitive in the semiclassical approach which predicts a mode hopping dynamics resulting from a dynamical bistability of the classical electric field subject to spontaneous emission noise.…”

“…The presence of two well‐separated peaks is the basis of the two‐state model. [ 145 ] The peak with small j corresponds to state 1 (the strong mode is lasing and the weak mode is nonlasing), whereas the peak with small i corresponds to state 2. The faint “bridge” between these two peaks corresponds to transitions between state 1 and 2.…”

“Amplified Spontaneous Emission” in Micro- and Nanolasers

“…A class of models which avoid these pitfalls has been based on a quantum-mechanical derivation of equations, specific to semiconductor-based devices, where equivalent variables are used for the description: a photon-assisted polarization, the photon field and the population [93,94]. While solving the two previous shortcomings, and allowing for a self-consistent derivation of fluctuations, these models still do not predict the occurrence of superthermal emission which can only be obtained, in this framework, from purely probabilistic considerations [95].…”

Superposition of two-mode squeezed states for quantum information processing and quantum sensing

“…We first analyze the statistics of each reduced single-mode state (RSMS) of a superposition of TMSSs. For the symmetrical balanced superposition, which we call the even TMSS, we show that there is bosonic superbunching [45,46], an effect with potential applications for advanced imaging techniques (such as ghost interference and imaging) as well as efficient nonlinear light-matter interaction [47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. On the other hand, for small squeezing parameters, each single mode of the asymmetrical balanced superposition (odd TMSS) presents two-photon anticorrelation [45,46], a desired behavior for single-photon sources [54].…”