Second order coherence of broadband down-converted light on ultrashort time scale determined by two photon absorption in semiconductor

Observing two-photon subwavelength interference of broadband chaotic light in a polarization-selective Michelson interferometer

We demonstrated a method to achieve the two-photon subwavelength effect of true broadband chaotic light in polarization-selective Michelson interferometer based on two-photon absorption detection. To our knowledge, it is the first time that this effect has been observed with broadband chaotic light. In theory, the two-photon polarization coherence matrix and probability amplitudes matrix are combined to develop polarized two-photon interference terms, which explains the experimental results well. To make better use of this interferometer to produce the subwavelength effect, we also make a series of error analyses to find out the relationship between the visibility and the degree of polarization error. Our experimental and theoretical results contribute to the understanding of the two-photon subwavelength interference, which shed light on the development of the two-photon interference theory of vector light field based on quantum mechanics. The characteristic of the two-photon subwavelength effect have significant applications in temporal ghost imaging, such as it helps to improve the resolution of temporal objects.

Photon extrabunching in ultrabright twin beams measured by two-photon counting in a semiconductor

For many years twin beams originating from parametric down-converted light beams have aroused great interest and attention in the photonics community. One particular aspect of the twin beams is their peculiar intensity correlation functions, which are related to the coincidence rate of photon pairs. Here we take advantage of the huge bandwidth offered by two-photon absorption in a semiconductor to quantitatively determine correlation functions of twin beams generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Compared with classical incoherent sources, photon extrabunching is unambiguously and precisely measured, originating from exact coincidence between down-converted pairs of photons, travelling in unison. These results strongly establish that two-photon counting in semiconductors is a powerful tool for the absolute measurement of light beam photon correlations at ultrashort timescales.

Ultrafast three-photon counting in a photomultiplier tube

We demonstrate experimentally ultrafast three-photon counting by three-photon absorption in a GaAsP photomultiplier tube at the wavelength range of 1800-1900 nm, and analyze its sensitivity and time response. Pulse energy of ∼500 fJ is shown to be detectable for ultrafast 170 fs pulses. The presented three-photon counter may serve as a unique tool for ultrafast quantum state characterization as well as for ultrasensitive third-order temporal measurements.