Photon statistics of amplified spontaneous emission

Abstract: Developments in quantum technologies lead to new applications that require radiation sources with specific photon statistics. A widely used Poissonian statistics are easily produced by lasers; however, some applications require super- or sub-Poissonian statistics. Statistical properties of a light source are characterized by the second-order coherence function g^2(0). This function distinguishes stimulated radiation of lasers with g^2(0)=1 from light of other sources. For example, g^2(0)=2 for black-body radiation, and g^2(0)=0 for single-photon emission. One of the applications requiring super-Poissonian statistics (g^2(0)>1) is ghost imaging with thermal light. Ghost imaging also requires light with a narrow linewidth and high intensity. Currently, rather expensive and inefficient light sources are used for this purpose. In the last year, a superluminescent diode based on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) has been considered as a new light source for ghost imaging. Even though ASE has been widely studied, its photon statistics has not been settled - there are neither reliable theoretical estimates of the second-order coherence function nor unambiguous experimental data. Our computer simulation clearly establishes that coherence properties of light produced by ASE are similar to that of a thermal source with g^2(0)=2 independent of pump power. This result manifests the fundamental difference between ASE and laser radiation.