title: High-order temporal coherences of chaotic and laser light.
abstract: We demonstrate a new approach to measuring high-order temporal coherences that uses a four-element superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. The four independent, interleaved single-photon-sensitive elements parse a single spatial mode of an optical beam over dimensions smaller than the minimum diffraction-limited spot size. Integrating this device with four-channel time-tagging electronics to generate multi-start, multi-stop histograms enables measurement of temporal coherences up to fourth order for a continuous range of all associated time delays. We observe high-order photon bunching from a chaotic, pseudo-thermal light source, measuring maximum third- and fourth-order coherence values of 5.87 +/- 0.17 and 23.1 +/- 1.8, respectively, in agreement with the theoretically predicted values of 3! = 6 and 4! = 24. Laser light, by contrast, is confirmed to have coherence values of approximately 1 for second, third and fourth orders at all time delays.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80305, USA. marty@nist.gov
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Burm
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baek
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Dauler
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kerman
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Molnar
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: Karl K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Berggren
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Mirin
authors.forename: Sae Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Nam
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D055096:Optical Devices; D010783:Photometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014159:Transducers