Light of Two Atoms in Free Space: Bunching or Antibunching?
Wolf S, Richter S, von Zanthier J, Schmidt-Kaler F (2020)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2020
Journal
Book Volume: 124
Journal Issue: 6
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.063603
Abstract
Photon statistics divides light sources into three different categories, characterized by bunched, antibunched, or uncorrelated photon arrival times. Single atoms, ions, molecules, or solid state emitters display antibunching of photons, while classical thermal sources exhibit photon bunching. Here we demonstrate a light source in free space, where the photon statistics depends on the direction of observation, undergoing a continuous crossover between photon bunching and antibunching. We employ two trapped ions, observe their fluorescence under continuous laser light excitation, and record spatially resolved the autocorrelation function g((2))(tau) with a movable Hanbury Brown and Twiss detector. Varying the detector position we find a minimum value for antibunching, g((2))(0) = 0.60(5) and a maximum of g((2))(0) = 1.46(8) for bunching, demonstrating that this source radiates fundamentally different types of light alike. The observed variation of the autocorrelation function is understood in the Dicke model from which the observed maximum and minimum values can be modeled, taking independently measured experimental parameters into account.
Authors with CRIS profile
Stefan Richter
Quantum Optics & Quantum Information (QOQI)
Joachim von Zanthier
Quantum Optics & Quantum Information (QOQI)
Related research project(s)
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Wolf, S., Richter, S., von Zanthier, J., & Schmidt-Kaler, F. (2020). Light of Two Atoms in Free Space: Bunching or Antibunching? Physical Review Letters, 124(6). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.063603
MLA:
Wolf, Sebastian, et al. "Light of Two Atoms in Free Space: Bunching or Antibunching?" Physical Review Letters 124.6 (2020).
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