Photon statistics

[George Herold]

So my colleague was off seeing a diamond nitrogen vacancies lab,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen-vacancy_center
(I haven't read it...)
At the single photon end, you can use a confocal microscope,
(with pin hole) to watch one atom, and see that there is
'dead spot' for ~10-20 ns(?) (as the atom/vacancy get's
re-pumped by the light source.)

That seems like a lot of work/expense to find a non-ideal
source, and we got to talking about photon statistics.

You've got Hanbury Brown, which I tried to measure once,
but made an error in my set-up.. maybe again some day,
but it's damn hard to see 'photon bunching'...
(George thinks about a rubidium lamp, pin hole and
single photon detector...? and various filters.)

Anyway I was thinking of non-ideal light sources,
Non-ideal, but fundamental.. not just a noisy laser.
(or clouds going in front of the sun.)
There are these labs that use a moving diffusior and
laser speckle pattern to make noise.. but it's sorta
man made. (you can change the diffusor speed, which
changes the noise spectrum, so at least it has a knob.)

I once looked at the noise of a diode laser right near threshold;
it looked noisier, but it was dang tweaky to keep the laser
'near' ... some FB loop that looked at the noise?

Other ideas?

George H.

 

You can make anticorrelated shot noise by wiring two very efficient LEDs (or maybe diode lasers) in parallel and running them off a sub-Poissonian current source.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

 

[Winfield Hill]

pcdhobbs@gmail.com wrote...

You can make anticorrelated shot noise by wiring
two very efficient LEDs (or maybe diode lasers)
in parallel and running them off a sub-Poissonian
current source.

I supose you need to colect all or most of the
light from each LED. Easier with lasers...


--
Thanks,
- Win

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 5/18/19 9:13 AM, Winfield Hill wrote:

pcdhobbs@gmail.com wrote...

You can make anticorrelated shot noise by wiring
two very efficient LEDs (or maybe diode lasers)
in parallel and running them off a sub-Poissonian
current source.

I supose you need to colect all or most of the
light from each LED. Easier with lasers...

You can plot the anticorrelations even with quite a bit of loss.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 5/20/19 5:27 PM, Robert Baer wrote:

George Herold wrote:
So my colleague was off seeing a diamond nitrogen vacancies lab,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen-vacancy_center (I haven't
read it...) At the single photon end, you can use a confocal
microscope, (with pin hole) to watch one atom, and see that there
is 'dead spot' for ~10-20 ns(?) (as the atom/vacancy get's
re-pumped by the light source.)

That seems like a lot of work/expense to find a non-ideal source,
and we got to talking about photon statistics.

You've got Hanbury Brown, which I tried to measure once, but made
an error in my set-up.. maybe again some day, but it's damn hard to
see 'photon bunching'... (George thinks about a rubidium lamp, pin
hole and single photon detector...? and various filters.)

Anyway I was thinking of non-ideal light sources, Non-ideal, but
fundamental.. not just a noisy laser. (or clouds going in front of
the sun.) There are these labs that use a moving diffusior and
laser speckle pattern to make noise.. but it's sorta man made.
(you can change the diffusor speed, which changes the noise
spectrum, so at least it has a knob.)

I once looked at the noise of a diode laser right near threshold;
it looked noisier, but it was dang tweaky to keep the laser 'near'
... some FB loop that looked at the noise?

Other ideas?

George H.



According to a reliable source, there is no such thing as a photon.

That's an interesting and somewhat subtle question. At bottom a photon
is an elementary excitation of the EM field with certain boundary
conditions--in other words, it's not a thing, it's a property of
something else.

However, like drops from a faucet, you can count them.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[Robert Baer]

George Herold wrote:

So my colleague was off seeing a diamond nitrogen vacancies lab,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen-vacancy_center
(I haven't read it...)
At the single photon end, you can use a confocal microscope,
(with pin hole) to watch one atom, and see that there is
'dead spot' for ~10-20 ns(?) (as the atom/vacancy get's
re-pumped by the light source.)

That seems like a lot of work/expense to find a non-ideal
source, and we got to talking about photon statistics.

You've got Hanbury Brown, which I tried to measure once,
but made an error in my set-up.. maybe again some day,
but it's damn hard to see 'photon bunching'...
(George thinks about a rubidium lamp, pin hole and
single photon detector...? and various filters.)

Anyway I was thinking of non-ideal light sources,
Non-ideal, but fundamental.. not just a noisy laser.
(or clouds going in front of the sun.)
There are these labs that use a moving diffusior and
laser speckle pattern to make noise.. but it's sorta
man made. (you can change the diffusor speed, which
changes the noise spectrum, so at least it has a knob.)

I once looked at the noise of a diode laser right near threshold;
it looked noisier, but it was dang tweaky to keep the laser
'near' ... some FB loop that looked at the noise?

Other ideas?

George H.





According to a reliable source, there is no such thing as a photon.

---
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[Clifford Heath]

On 21/5/19 6:33 am, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 5/20/19 5:27 PM, Robert Baer wrote:
George Herold wrote:
So my colleague was off seeing a diamond nitrogen vacancies lab,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen-vacancy_center (I haven't
read it...) At the single photon end, you can use a confocal
microscope, (with pin hole) to watch one atom, and see that there
is 'dead spot' for ~10-20 ns(?) (as the atom/vacancy get's re-pumped
by the light source.)

That seems like a lot of work/expense to find a non-ideal source,
and we got to talking about photon statistics.

You've got Hanbury Brown, which I tried to measure once, but made
an error in my set-up.. maybe again some day, but it's damn hard to
see 'photon bunching'... (George thinks about a rubidium lamp, pin
hole and single photon detector...? and various filters.)

Anyway I was thinking of non-ideal light sources, Non-ideal, but
fundamental.. not just a noisy laser. (or clouds going in front of
the sun.) There are these labs that use a moving diffusior and laser
speckle pattern to make noise.. but it's sorta man made.
(you can change the diffusor speed, which changes the noise
spectrum, so at least it has a knob.)

I once looked at the noise of a diode laser right near threshold; it
looked noisier, but it was dang tweaky to keep the laser 'near'
... some FB loop that looked at the noise?

Other ideas?

George H.



According to a reliable source, there is no such thing as a photon.

That's an interesting and somewhat subtle question.  At bottom a photon
is an elementary excitation of the EM field with certain boundary
conditions--in other words, it's not a thing, it's a property of
something else.

There are no things. Just processes. I suppose they take place in a
thing, so yeah, there's one thing. Just one.