Quantum temporal imaging of antibunching

Abstract

We consider transformation of quantum intensity correlations of light, observed by direct photodetection, by a single-lens temporal imaging scheme with magnification factor M . We prove that such an imaging scheme performs noiseless stretching or contraction of the second-order intensity correlation function without deteriorating such nonclassical features as antibunching and sub-Poissonian statistics of the photons. We also evaluate the photocurrent fluctuation spectrum for the photodetection of nonclassical light and show that this temporal imaging scheme performs its noiseless scaling by magnification factor M without adding any noise. We illustrate our results by two examples of nonclassical light sources: sub-Poissonian laser as a continuous-wave macroscopic nonclassical light source exhibiting antibunching and sub-Poissonian statistics of photons and single-photon source as its pulsed counterpart possessing similar nonclassical features. Our results open interesting possibilities for noiseless control of temporal and spectral characteristics of nonclassical light and can find numerous practical applications in quantum optics and quantum information.