Interferometric control of the photon-number distribution
Abstract
We demonstrate deterministic control over the photon-number distribution by interfering two coherent beams within a disordered photonic lattice. By sweeping a relative phase between two equal-amplitude coherent fields with Poissonian statistics that excite adjacent sites in a lattice endowed with disorder-immune chiral symmetry, we measure an output photon-number distribution that changes periodically between super-thermal and sub-thermal photon statistics upon ensemble averaging. Thus, the photon-bunching level is controlled interferometrically at a fixed mean photon-number by gradually activating the excitation symmetry of the chiral-mode pairs with structured coherent illumination and without modifying the disorder level of the random system itself.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4992018
Entities
People
- Alexander Szameit
- Ayman F Abouraddy
- Bahaa E. A. Saleh
- Demetrios N. Christodoulides
- H. Esat Kondakci
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- University of Central Florida
- University of Rostock