Direct measurement of the photon statistics of a triggered single photon source.
We studied intensity fluctuations of a single photon source relying on the pulsed excitation of the fluorescence of a single molecule at room temperature. We directly measured the Mandel parameter Q(T) over 4 orders of magnitude of observation time scale T by recording every photocount. On time scale of a few excitation periods, sub-Poissonian statistics is clearly observed and the probablility of two-photons events is 10 times smaller than Poissonian pulses. On longer times, blinking in the fluorescence, due to the molecular triplet state, produces an excess of noise.
Treussart
F
F
Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire, ENS Cachan, 61 Avenue du Président Wilson, 94235 Cachan Cedex, France. treusser@physique.ens-cachan.fr
Alléaume
R
R
Le Floc'h
V
V
Xiao
L T
LT
Courty
J-M
JM
Roch
J-F
JF