Temporal intensity correlation of light scattered by a hot atomic vapor

A Dussaux (1) , T Passerat de Silans (2) , W Guerin (1) , O Alibart (3) , S Tanzilli (3) , F Vakili (4) , R Kaiser (1)

1 INLN - Institut Non Linéaire de Nice Sophia-Antipolis
2 UFPB - Universidade Federal da Paraiba / Federal University of Paraiba
3 LPMC - Laboratoire de physique de la matière condensée
4 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE

We present temporal intensity correlation measurements of light scattered by a hot atomic vapor. Clear evidence of photon bunching is shown at very short timescales (nanoseconds) imposed by the Doppler broadening of the hot vapor. Moreover, we demonstrate that relevant information about the scattering process, such as the ratio of single to multiple scattering, can be deduced from the measured intensity correlation function. These measurements confirm the interest of temporal intensity correlation to access non-trivial spectral features, with potential applications in astrophysics.

Mots clés: Intensity correlation; Light scattering

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]

A Dussaux, T Passerat de Silans, W Guerin, O Alibart, S Tanzilli, et al.. Temporal intensity correlation of light scattered by a hot atomic vapor. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2016, 93, pp.043826. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.93.043826⟩. ⟨hal-01323879⟩