热光的高阶双缝干涉

干涉效应反映了光场的相干性,非相干光源中无序性会破坏干涉.然而对于高阶干涉来说这一看法并不成立.文章作者最近的理论和实验研究表明,横向传播方向无序的热光源可以实现高阶双缝干涉.尽管单个探测器的强度分布是均匀的,处于不同位置的两个探测器的联合强度关联却出现了干涉条纹.当两个探测器同步反向移动时,条纹间距减小为一阶干涉条纹的一半.实验结果同不久前报道的在自发参量下转换过程中产生的纠缠双光子对的双缝实验中所观察到的亚波长干涉效应十分类似.实验结果可以用多模热光场的二阶空间关联性质来解释.热光的高阶双缝干涉是著名的Hanbury-Brown和Twiss实验的空间干涉版本,因此也可称其为Hanbury-Brown和Twiss型双缝干涉。     

Spatial coherence of an optical turbulent beam in a biased photorefractive crystal due to the spatiotemporal modulation instability

We report the experimental observation of the dynamic pattern formation of a broad coherent light beam in a biased photorefractive crystal due to the spatiotemporal modulation instability. When the nonlinearity exceeds a specific threshold, the coherent light beam not only breaks up into light spots due to the modulation instability but also fast fluctuates both spatially and temporally, forming an optical turbulent beam, which behaves as a quasi-homogeneous speckled beam or a partially incoherent beam. We investigate the spatial coherence property of an optical turbulent beam from the visibility of the averaged double-slit interference fringe. We also numerically demonstrate the visibility variation of the instantaneous interference fringe of an optical turbulent beam.     

Hanbury-Brown and Twiss type double-slit interference with photorefractive fanning light

This paper reports that when an intense extraordinary-polarized laser beam illuminates a photorefractive BaTiO₃ crystal, the dynamic beam fanning light is formed to be a thermal-like light source with a long correlation time and wide spectral bandwidth. The experimental results of the first- and second-order double-slit interference with such photorefractive fanning light source, can be understood with the theoretical simulation in terms of Hanbury-Brown and Twiss effect.     

Frequency-filtered parametric fluorescence interacting with an atomic ensemble

The frequency spectrum of the fluorescence must be reduced when studying interactions between atoms and parametric fluorescence using the photon counting method since photon counting does not distinguish the light frequency. An interference filter and etalons successfully reduced the frequency spectrum of the parametric fluorescence from 6.6 THz to 1.7 GHz. The parametric fluorescence after frequency filtering showed the non-classical feature violating a Cauchy-Schwartz inequality for the intensity correlation function. We used slow light propagation with Rb gas to demonstrate that the obtained light source interacts with the atoms.     

Ghost imaging and ghost interference with pseudo-thermal light: Mode-separation by pure software processing

We report on a new experiment in which ghost imaging and ghost interference with quasi-thermal light are simultaneously obtained from the same set of experimental reference patterns. By sliding the mask along the object arm in a continuous way, one can see imaging and diffraction patterns to come to light and fade out in opposite directions.     

杨氏双缝干涉实验中的光谱奇异现象

基于部分相干光的传输理论,研究了杨氏双缝干涉实验中的光谱奇异现象。发现在杨氏双缝干涉实验干涉场区中的某个点的光谱奇异现象,它会随着某些参量(如源光谱宽度Γ′,缝宽参量ε,相对空间相干度Δ0)的变化而改变,指出该现象可应用于信息的编码及自由空间的信息传输。     

Interaction of a two-level atom with squeezed light

We consider a degenerate parametric oscillator whose cavity contains a two-level atom. Applying the Heisenberg and quantum Langevin equations, we calculate in the bad-cavity limit the mean photon number, the quadrature variance, and the power spectrum for the cavity mode in general and for the signal light and fluorescent light in particular. We also obtain the normalized second-order correlation function for the fluorescent light. We find that the presence of the two-level atom leads to a decrease in the degree of squeezing of the signal light. It so turns out that the fluorescent light is in a squeezed state and the power spectrum consists of a single peak only.     

Quantum interference of multimode two-photon pairs with a Michelson interferometer

We perform the second-order quantum interference experiment with the multimode photon pairs produced via an optical parametric oscillator far below threshold in a Michelson interferometer, measure the second-order correlation function in different cases. We find when the interferometer is highly unbalanced, the shape of the second-order correlation function is clearly dependent on the path length difference between two interfering beams. On the contrary, when the interferometer is nearly balanced, beside its height, the shape of the second-order correlation function is independent on the small path length difference. The second-order correlation function shows a multipeaked structure in both cases. All experimental results agree very well with the theoretical predictions.     

Third-order optical intensity correlation measurements of pseudo-thermal light

Third-order Hanbrury Brown–Twiss and double-slit interference experiments with a pseudo-thermal light are performed by recording intensities in single, double and triple optical paths, respectively. The experimental results verifies the theoretical prediction that the indispensable condition for achieving a interference pattern or ghost image in Nth-order intensity correlation measurements is the synchronous detection of the same light field by each reference detector, no matter the intensities recorded in one, or two, or N optical paths. It is shown that, when the reference detectors are scanned in the opposite directions, the visibility and resolution of the third-order spatial correlation function of thermal light is much better than that scanned in the same direction, but it is no use for obtaining the Nth-order interference pattern or ghost image in the thermal Nth-order interference or ghost imaging.     

Control of group velocity of light via magnetic field

We have theoretically studied the effects of quantum coherence in a driven quasi-degenerate two-level atomic system. We have shown that the quantum interference, which can be destructive or constructive, can be controlled by an externally applied magnetic field allowing one to implement both electromagnetically induced transparency and electromagnetically induced absorption in the same atomic system. Determined by frequency dispersion of the index of refraction of the system, the group velocity of light pulses ranges from ultra-slow to superluminal with changing of the magnitude of the magnetic field.     

On the angular dependence of gaps in 1-D Si/SiO2 periodic structures

A multilayer of silicon and silicon dioxide was used to study the angular dependence of reflectance maxima originating from interference and bulk optical properties. Silicon dioxide has a lattice resonance in the infrared causing an interval of high reflectance for wavelengths around 9 μm. The multilayer was designed such that the interference maxima do not overlap/interact with the material related reflectance maximum. In this way the different angular behavior for the two types of reflectance maxima can be studied simultaneously. Experimental and calculated reflectance spectra for s- and p-polarized light for angles of incidence between 0° and 90° collected for every 5° are presented. The reflectance features caused by interference generally move to shorter wavelengths with increasing angle of incidence, and the materials related peak is widened for (s-polarized light) and excitation of the longitudinal modes was observed for p-polarized light.     

Two-Time Intensity Correlations and Multiple Interference Mechanisms in a Driven Cascade Atom

We examine the intensity correlation functions of the two fluorescent fields that are emitted from the top and middle states of a doubly driven three-level atom in the cascade configuration. Novel interference effects are shown. （i） Both of the fluorescent fields have anticorrelations which can exist for long times when the applied fields are on the two-photon resonance and far off one.photon resonances. （ii） Both of the fluorescent fields have strong correlations when the applied fields are far off one- and two-photon resonances. In particular, the extremely strong correlation occurs for the photons emitted from the top state. The above phenomena are traced to the multiple interference mechanisms.     

光源线度对双缝干涉光强分布的影响

利用菲涅耳原理讨论了光源线度对双缝干涉光强分布的影响，并得了一般性的结论。     

One-photon and two-photon double-slit interference in spontaneous and stimulated parametric down-conversions

We theoretically discuss two-photon double-slit interference for spontaneous and stimulated parametric down-conversions and compare it with one-photon case. We show that two-photon sub-wavelength interference can exist in a general interaction of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) for both type I and type II crystals. In low gain SPDC, interference effect can be attributed to the previous study based on two-photon entangled state. But the important fact is that the sub-wavelength interference will not be washed out even if in very high gain SPDC, revealing the macroscopic nature. We propose an alternative scheme to observe sub-wavelength interference with a joint-intensity measurement, which occurs for a type I crystal in the high gain case. The theoretical analysis shows that the effect originates from classical thermal correlation. However, we also formulate the one-photon and two-photon double-slit interference in the stimulated process, and show amplified interference patterns.     

光的干涉和衍射的Matlab数值模拟

利用Matlab数值模拟杨氏双缝干涉、单缝衍射和光栅衍射的图案和光强分布曲线,并讨论了光的非单色性对干涉条纹的影响.     

干涉和衍射的联系与区别

通过理论分析得出双缝实验中空间光场的分布是干涉与衍射共同作用的结果.在形成条件、分布规律以及数学处理方法上说明了干涉和衍射的区别与联系.     

Angular correlation of photons emitted from an excited quantum well

We study the angular correlation of single photons emitted from excited semiconductor quantum wells. The considered physical system is described in terms of two subsystems, the electronic part constituting the bath and the photonic part constituting the bathed subsystem, both being coupled by the light-matter interaction. From the master equations describing the coarse-grained Markovian evolution of the photonic subsystem, we derive the corresponding equations of motion for the photonic angular correlation functions. These equations are solved in the stationary, low-density limit. Experimentally, the angular correlations can be assessed by studying the interference of light emitted in different directions. In agreement with recent experimental results, we find that for ordered quantum wells angular correlations exist only in emission directions for which the projections of the photon momenta onto the plane of the quantum well are equal. This feature is a direct consequence of the Bloch character of the electronic states in an ordered quantum well. Thus the experimental study of the angular correlations of emitted photons may provide an interesting diagnostic tool to reveal the presence of disorder in semiconductor heterostructures and to characterize its influence on the electronic states near the band edges.     

基于MATLAB的多光学现象仿真可视化设计

利用MATLAB自带GUI,对光学单色光杨氏双缝干涉、牛顿环、夫琅禾费衍射以及迈克尔逊干涉仪等光学实验进行可视化模拟。     

The impact of light polarization on imaging visibility of Nth-order intensity correlation with thermal light

The relationship between the imaging visibility of arbitrary Nth-order intensity correlation with thermal light and light’s degree of polarization is investigated. It is shown that for the same order correlation, the value of visibility with partially polarized light is greater than that with natural light but smaller than that with completely polarized light, and the visibility in all three cases is remarkably enhanced as N increases.