Determination of a small photon number by statistical amplifying transients
Anno: 1989
Autori: Arecchi F.T., Meucci R., Roversi J.A.
Affiliazione autori: Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy;
Department of Physics, University of Firenze, Italy;
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, S.P., Brazil
Abstract: We introduce a “statistical microscope” which allows the accurate determination of a small number of infrared photons inside a laser cavity by optical (rather than electron) multiplication. For this purpose, we induce a loss switch in a CO2 laser and then measure the statistical distribution of passage times through a threshold value within the linear regime. Our approach is model independent, since the measured cumulants provide both average values and associated error bars. Furthermore, our method discriminates the initial photon number from noise contributions along the amplifying path, thus it does not depend on the statistical features of the amplifying process.
Giornale/Rivista: EPL
Volume: 8 (3) Da Pagina: 225 A: 231
Parole chiavi: Quantum optics; CO2 lasersDOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/8/3/004Citazioni: 23dati da “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) aggiornati al: 2024-04-28Riferimenti tratti da Isi Web of Knowledge: (solo abbonati) Link per visualizzare la scheda su IsiWeb: Clicca quiLink per visualizzare la citazioni su IsiWeb: Clicca qui