Intensity Interferometry Research Articles

Experimental verification of full-field accuracy in stereo-DIC based on the ESPI method.

This paper proposes a method to merge stereo-digital image correlation (DIC) and electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) data by camera calibration. The proposed method is employed to verify the accuracy of full-field out-of-plate displacements measured by stereo-DIC in a cantilever beam test. The mean absolute error and the root mean square error (RMSE) of the full-field displacement measured by four-megapixel cameras are 0.849 µm and 1.08 µm at 60 mm field of view, respectively, and the RMSE of the central area is 0.615 µm. The errors are not uniformly distributed because of the imperfect calibration. When the lenses are changed and the field of view reaches 120 mm, the RMSE is 1.48 µm with uniform distribution. These accuracies could be traced back to the laser wavelength to confirm the stereo-DIC data. The proposed method can be used not only to verify the full-field measurement accuracy of DIC but also to determine the rigid-body displacement for ESPI with a high-precision stereo-DIC. Thus, the displacement vector can be obtained. Furthermore, it can unify the coordinate of multiple ESPI systems to achieve a large range of high-precision three-dimensional deformation measurements.

Observations with the Southern Connecticut Stellar Interferometer. I. Instrument Description and First Results

Abstract We discuss the design, construction, and operation of a new intensity interferometer, based on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut. While this paper will focus on observations taken with an original two-telescope configuration, the current instrumentation consists of three portable 0.6 m Dobsonian telescopes with single-photon avalanche diode detectors located at the Newtonian focus of each telescope. Photons detected at each station are time stamped and read out with timing correlators that can give cross-correlations in timing to a precision of 48 ps. We detail our observations to date with the system, which has now been successfully used at our university in 16 nights of observing. Components of the instrument were also deployed on one occasion at Lowell Observatory, where the Perkins and Hall telescopes were made to function as an intensity interferometer. We characterize the performance of the instrument in detail. In total, the observations indicate the detection of a correlation peak at the level of 6.76σ when observing unresolved stars, and consistency with partial or no detection when observing at a baseline sufficient to resolve the star. Using these measurements, we conclude that the angular diameter of Arcturus is larger than 15 mas and that of Vega is between 0.8 and 17 mas. While the uncertainties are large at this point, both results are consistent with measures from amplitude-based long baseline optical interferometers.

Measuring the Joint Spectral Mode of Photon Pairs Using Intensity Interferometry

The ability to manipulate and measure the time-frequency structure of quantum light is useful for information processing and metrology. Measuring this structure is also important when developing quantum light sources with high modal purity that can interfere with other independent sources. Here, we present and experimentally demonstrate a scheme based on intensity interferometry to measure the joint spectral mode of photon pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We observe correlations in the spectral phase of the photons due to chirp in the pump. We show that our scheme can be combined with stimulated emission tomography to quickly measure their mode using bright classical light. Our scheme does not require phase stability, nonlinearities, or spectral shaping and thus is an experimentally simple way of measuring the modal structure of quantum light.

Investigation on the Formation of Laser Transverse Pattern Possessing Optical Lattices

Optical lattices (OLs) with diverse transverse patterns and optical vortex lattices (OVLs) with special phase singularities have played important roles in the fields of atomic cooling, particle manipulation, quantum entanglement, and optical communication. As a matter of consensus until now, the OL patterns are generated by coherently superimposing multiple transverse modes with a fixed phase difference through the transverse mode locking (TML) effect. There are phase singularities in the dark area of this kind of OL pattern, so it is also called OVL pattern. However, in our research, it is found that some high-order complex symmetric OL patterns can hardly be analyzed by TML model. Instead, the analysis method of incoherent superposition of mode intensity could be applied. The OL pattern obtained by this method can be regarded as in non-TML state. Therefore, in this article, we mainly study the distinct characteristics and properties of OL patterns in TML and non-TML states. Through intensity comparison, interferometry, and beat frequency spectrum, we can effectively distinguish OL pattern in TML and non-TML states, which is of significance to explore the formation of laser transverse pattern possessing OL.

Intensity Correlation Interferometry for Astral Observation Angle Based on Spatial Modulation

Intensity Correlation Interferometry for Astral Observation Angle Based on Spatial Modulation

Absolute distance measurement using cross correlation interferometer with a repetition rate multiplication frequency comb

In this paper, the Fabry-Perot etalon is used to multiply the repetition rate of the fiber optical frequency comb. The repetition rate is amplified from 250 MHz to 10 GHz, and the corresponding pulse interval is reduced from 1200 mm to 30 mm. For the pulse cross correlation ranging method, the repetition rate multiplication can greatly reduce the length requirement of the scanning reference arm. We analyze in detail the principle of cross correlation interferometry based on repetition rate multiplication frequency comb. A numerical mode of the function is comprehensively established. The basic parameters of optical source and Fabry-Perot cavity for the influence of filtered optical spectrum and cross correlation fringe are analyzed through the numerical simulation. The multiplied frequency comb is utilized for absolute ranging with the help of a pulse cross correlation method. By comparison, our result differs from the result obtained by a conventional counting interferometer only by 4 μm for distances up to 210 mm.

The emission order of hydrogen isotopes via correlation functions in 30 MeV/u Ar+Au reactions

The intensity interferometry is applied as a chronometer of the particle emission of hydrogen isotopes from the intermediate velocity source formed in 40Ar+197Au reactions at 30 MeV/u. The dynamic emission order of τp>τd>τt is evidenced via the correlation functions of nonidentical particle pairs. Assuming the similar source size, the same emission order is inferred from the correlation functions of identical particle pairs, where τp≈100fm/c is extracted by the fit of Koonin-Pratt equation to p-p correlation function. Transport model simulations demonstrate that the dynamic emission order of light charged particles depends on the stiffness of the nuclear symmetry energy.

Experimental quantum enhanced optical interferometry

Optical quantum interferometry represents the oldest example of quantum metrology and it is at the source of quantum technologies. The original squeezed state scheme is now a significant element of the last version of gravitational wave detectors and various additional uses have been proposed. Further quantum enhanced schemes, from SU(1,1) interferometer to twin beam correlation interferometry, have also reached the stage of proof of principle experiments enlarging the field of experimental quantum interferometry and paving the way to several further applications ranging from Planck scale signals search to small effects detection. In this review paper I introduce these experimental achievements, describing their schemes, advantages, applications and possible further developments.

Stellar interferometry for gravitational waves

We propose a new method to detect gravitational waves, based on spatial coherence interferometry with stellar light, as opposed to the conventional temporal coherence interferometry with laser sources. The proposed method detects gravitational waves by using two coherent beams of light from a single distant star measured at separate space-based detectors with a long baseline. This method can be applied to either the amplitude or intensity interferometry. This experiment allows for the search of gravitational waves in the lower frequency range of 10-6 to 10-4 Hz. In this work, we present the detection sensitivity of the proposed stellar interferometer by taking the detector response and shot and acceleration noises into account. Furthermore, the proposed experimental setup is capable of searching for primordial black holes and studying the size of the target neutron star, which are also discussed in the paper.

Influence of the radiation pattern errors for the correlation interferometer

While designing phase-correlation direction finders, as antenna components, the non-directional ones are usually applied. Mounting the non-directional antenna components provides certain new options but makes the bearing computation procedure more problematic. In the present paper, the feasibility of using the directional antenna components is discussed and confirmed in terms of its positive influence on the stability of the bearing results in the case when the deviations of the implementations of the actual diagrams of the antenna components from their reference model occur.

Optical intensity interferometry lab tests in preparation of stellar diameter measurements at IACTs at GHz photon rates

ABSTRACTAstronomical intensity interferometry enables quantitative measurements of the source geometry by measuring the photon fluxes in individual telescopes and correlating them, rather than correlating the electromagnetic waves’ amplitudes. This simplifies the realization of large telescope baselines and high angular resolutions. Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), intended to detect the optical emission of γ-ray-induced air showers, are excellent candidates to perform intensity correlations in the optical at reasonable signal-to-noise ratios. The detected coherence time is on the scale of (10−12)–(10−15) s – depending on the optical bandwidth of the measurement – which challenges the detection system to work in a stable and accurate way. We developed an intensity interferometry set-up applicable to IACTs, which measures the photocurrents from photomultipliers and correlates them offline, and as such is designed to handle the very large photon rates provided by the telescopes. We present measurements in the lab simulating starlight using a xenon lamp and measured at different degrees of temporal and spatial coherence. Necessary calibration procedures are described with the goal of understanding the measurements quantitatively. Measured coherence times between $5\,$femtoseconds (corresponding signal-to-background ratio 5 × 10−7) and $110\,$femtoseconds (signal-to-background ratio 10−5) are in good agreement with expectations, and so are the noise levels in the correlations, reaching down to 6 × 10−8, after measurements between $30\,$min and $1\,$h.

Crack tip monitoring by multiscale optical experimental techniques

This study focuses on the development of a complementary fatigue crack-tip evaluation approach with multiscale optical techniques with different resolutions. A middle tension (MT) specimen, of aluminium alloy AA6082-T6, was prepared and submitted to a cyclic fatigue loading to generate a fatigue crack. Then, it was statically loaded under a uniaxial tensile condition, and two non-contact full-field optical techniques, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI), were employed to acquire the experimental data. While the specimen is loaded with incremental force values, the behaviour of the cracked area is monitored, with displacement and deformation fields acquired for each force increment. The obtained data is thereby used to calculate the Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) and monitor the crack opening evolution. An overdeterministic algorithm was developed for the SIF determination. The main contribution of the present work is the development of a complementary multiscale methodology, which employs available techniques with different resolutions to monitor the tip of a fatigue crack, drawing a comparison between calculated parameters for each system to shift from one technique to the higher resolution one and validating the proposed methodologies. The obtained SIF values are compared to the reference solution proposed by ASTM E647, and an acceptable agreement has been verified amongst the results.

A new analytical approach to study chaos fraction characterization by using intensity interferometry

Multi particle intensity correlations measured to investigate the fluid debris produced during the collisions at the world largest colliders and observed a remarkable suppression in the measurement of three and four pions interferences. The analogous suppression can be analyzed to explore the chaos and coherence fractions of particle production sources in the collisions of heavy nuclei at unprecedented energies. We illustrate and explore the particles emissions from radiated sources with Bose Einstein coherence which induce multi particle interferences to probe the peculiarity of the sources as well as the distinctions about the chaos fraction in the collisions at unrivalled energies. We perspicacious that pions seem to the pertinent aspirant of coherence and chaos fractions, and the normalized chaos weight factors evaluate the existence of such hybrid phases of chaos and coherence significantly. The key point of this research is that we analyze normalized chaos weight factors to examine the chaos and coherence fractions of pions during the collisions of heavy nuclei. With such distinctive and novel approach, we observe a significant difference in the normalized chaos weight factors at small temperature and large momenta regimes.

The relationship between cross correlations and Green’s functions in ambient noise interferometry with Bayesian constraints

SUMMARYCross correlation of ambient seismic noise has begun to provide detailed images of the Earth that are not possible to attain using earthquake-based or active-source imaging techniques. However, the theoretical justification for the ambient noise correlation or seismic interferometry approach typically relies on an equipartition or diffuse field assumption that is not expected to be satisfied on Earth. Here we demonstrate that a Bayesian inference approach to calculating the expected cross correlation of seismic signals leads to an improved understanding of its relationship with the Green’s function. The Bayesian derivation is found to exactly replicate the equipartition result under a global energy constraint, and is able to accommodate any number of other constraints that typically cannot be utilized in other approaches. With these stronger constraints, the cross correlation is found to deviate more and more strongly from the ‘expected’ Green’s function, but nonetheless a specific prediction can be made regarding the expected cross correlation which can be used as a more reliable point of comparison with observations than the Green’s function. The approach therefore provides a path forward for how to use seismic cross correlation data under more and more realistic conditions and improvements in knowledge, and should eventually help improve the accuracy of resulting images of the Earth.

Improved Spatial Resolution Achieved by Chromatic Intensity Interferometry.

Interferometers are widely used in imaging technologies to achieve enhanced spatial resolution, but require that the incoming photons be indistinguishable. In previous work, we built and analyzed color erasure detectors, which expand the scope of intensity interferometry to accommodate sources of different colors. Here we demonstrate experimentally how color erasure detectors can achieve improved spatial resolution in an imaging task, well beyond the diffraction limit. Utilizing two 10.9-mm-aperture telescopes and a 0.8m baseline, we measure the distance between a 1063.6 and a 1064.4nm source separated by 4.2mm at a distance of 1.43km, which surpasses the diffraction limit of a single telescope by about 40 times. Moreover, chromatic intensity interferometry allows us to recover the phase of the Fourier transform of the imaged objects-a quantity that is, in the presence of modest noise, inaccessible to conventional intensity interferometry.

On incoherent diffractive imaging.

Incoherent diffractive imaging (IDI) promises structural analysis with atomic resolution based on intensity interferometry of pulsed X-ray fluorescence emission. However, its experimental realization is still pending and a comprehensive theory of contrast formation has not been established to date. Explicit expressions are derived for the equal-pulse two-point intensity correlations, as the principal measured quantity of IDI, with full control of the prefactors, based on a simple model of stochastic fluorescence emission. The model considers the photon detection statistics, the finite temporal coherence of the individual emissions, as well as the geometry of the scattering volume. The implications are interpreted in view of the most relevant quantities, including the fluorescence lifetime, the excitation pulse, as well as the extent of the scattering volume and pixel size. Importantly, the spatiotemporal overlap between any two emissions in the sample can be identified as a crucial factor limiting the contrast and its dependency on the sample size can be derived. The paper gives rigorous estimates for the optimum sample size, the maximum photon yield and the expected signal-to-noise ratio under optimal conditions. Based on these estimates, the feasibility of IDI experiments for plausible experimental parameters is discussed. It is shown in particular that the mean number of photons per detector pixel which can be achieved with X-ray fluorescence is severely limited and as a consequence imposes restrictive constraints on possible applications.

Radius measurement in binary stars: simulations of intensity interferometry

ABSTRACT Mass and radius measurements of stars are important inputs for models of stellar structure. Binary stars are of particular interest in this regard, because astrometry and spectroscopy of a binary together provide the masses of both stars as well as the distance to the system, while interferometry can both improve the astrometry and measure the radii of the stars. In this work, we simulate parameter recovery from intensity interferometry, especially the challenge of disentangling the radii of two stars from their combined interferometric signal. Two approaches are considered: separation of the visibility contributions of each star with the help of differing brightness ratios at different wavelengths, and direct fitting of the intensity correlation to a multiparameter model. Full image reconstructions is not attempted. Measurement of angular radii, angular separation, and first-order limb-darkening appears readily achievable for bright binary stars with current instrumentation.

Imaging by intensity interferometry of x-ray fluorescence at a compact x-ray free-electron laser

A semiclassical theory of incoherent diffractive imaging is given, based on the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect when used to image inner-shell x-ray fluorescence from heavy atoms excited by the femtosecond pulses of an x-ray laser. Interference between emission from different atoms is expected when the pulse duration is shorter than the fluorescent lifetime. Simulations for atoms at the vertices of an icosahedral virus capsid are given, and reconstructions are presented based on phasing of the pair correlation function between photons emitted independently from many different atoms at two different detector pixels. The dependence of the pair-correlation function on the fluorescence lifetime relative to the pulse duration of the x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) is computed, and a simple expression is obtained for the contrast of incoherent diffractive imaging speckles as a function of the XFEL's flux and lifetime. This indicates that compact XFELs, with reduced flux but sub-femtosecond pulses, should be ideally suited to atomic-resolution three-dimensional mapping of heavy atoms in materials science, chemistry, and biology.

High spatial coherence and short pulse duration revealed by the Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry at the European XFEL.

Second-order intensity interferometry was employed to study the spatial and temporal properties of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (EuXFEL). Measurements were performed at the soft x-ray Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE3) undulator beamline at a photon energy of 1.2 keV in the Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) mode. Two high-power regimes of the SASE3 undulator settings, i.e., linear and quadratic undulator tapering at saturation, were studied in detail and compared with the linear gain regime. The statistical analysis showed an exceptionally high degree of spatial coherence up to 90% for the linear undulator tapering. Analysis of the measured data in spectral and spatial domains provided an average pulse duration of about 10 fs in our measurements. The obtained results will be valuable for the experiments requiring and exploiting short pulse duration and utilizing high coherence properties of the EuXFEL.

Dynamic imaging of distant objects with ptychographical intensity interferometry

As a promising lensless imaging method for distant objects, intensity interferometry imaging (III) had been suffering from the unreliable phase retrieval process, hindering the development of III for decades. Recently, the introduction of ptychographic detection in III overcame this challenge, and a method called ptychographic III (PIII) was proposed. We here experimentally demonstrate that PIII can image a dynamic distant object. A reasonable image for the moving object can be retrieved with only two speckle patterns for each probe, and only 10 to 20 iterations are needed. Meanwhile, PIII exhibits robustness to the inaccurate information of the probe. Furthermore, PIII successfully recovers the image through a fog obfuscating the imaging light path, under which a conventional camera relying on lenses fails to provide a recognizable image.