Abstract
From quantum point of view, Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect is a result of constructive-destructive two-photon interference. There should be no Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect if there was no two-photon interference. In this paper, we observed Hanbury Brown- Twiss effect in a specially designed experiment, in which two-photon interference is impossible by keeping only one two-photon probability amplitude in the experimental scheme. However, our experimental results can still be interpreted by Glauber’s quantum optical coherence theory. The researches in our paper are helpful to understand the physics of the second-order coherence of light, especially the physics of Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect.
Highlights
Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) effect, which is known as two-photon bunching of thermal light, was first observed by Hanbury Brown and Twiss in 19561, 2
In quantum two-photon interference theory, HBT effect is due to the coherent superposition of different but indistinguishable two-photon probability amplitudes[5, 8, 18,19,20,21]
HBT is interpreted as the result of the correlation of intensity fluctuations in classical theory
Summary
Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) effect, which is known as two-photon bunching of thermal light, was first observed by Hanbury Brown and Twiss in 19561, 2. When two detectors are placed in the same coherence volume of the thermal light field, the correlation between two detected signals can be found[1, 2]. In quantum two-photon interference theory, HBT effect is due to the coherent superposition of different but indistinguishable two-photon probability amplitudes[5, 8, 18,19,20,21]. In most HBT type experiments, both classical intensity fluctuation correlation and quantum two-photon interference theories give the same prediction. According to the classical intensity fluctuation correlation theory, HBT effect can be observed. Two-photon probability amplitudes interference is impossible because there is only one path left In our experiments, both spatial and temporal HBT effect are observed. We find a novel HBT effect without quantum two-photon interference, which shed light on the physics of HBT effect
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
