Hanbury Brown & Twiss (HBT) type measurements in quantum optics experiments
Résumé
Quantum opticians usually employ and exploit genuine or modified HBT setups as standard tools for characterizing non-classical states of light. One the one hand, HBT measurements permit to characterize the emission statistics of photonic modes that are, depending on the emitter and on the spatial and spectral features, thermal, poissonnian, sub-poissonnian, or deterministic. On the other hand, auto-correlation and cross-correlation functions, recorded in the single photon counting regime, permit to infer the unique properties of single photon and two photons sources, that are further utilized in quantum communication applications. For instance, when applied to a single photon source, a genuine HBT setup helps qualifying the uniqueness emission feature. Moreover, when applied to a two photon source, a modified HBT setup permits measuring simultaneous emission time correlations, as well as single photon coherence time. During this talk, I will review some situations in which HBT type setups and related measurements are exploited in and for quantum optics or communication experiments.