Influence of spectral filtering on the quantum nature of light
Krista Joosten, Gerard Nienhuis · Journal of Optics B Quantum and Semiclassical Optics · 2000
We study the two-time correlation function of spectrally filtered light from a quantum mechanical light source. The bunching and anti-bunching properties of the photo-statistics of a field display the quantum nature of the source. We study whether these properties are affected by the presence of filters that are modelled by dielectric slabs. We quantize the radiation field in the presence of the filters and express the correlation function in terms of source operators. As a quantum source we take the resonance fluorescence of a driven two-level atom. We find that the spectral correlations depend on the linewidth of the filters. When the pass time of the filter is much longer than the time scale on which the source evolves, the presence of the filter can conceal the quantum nature of the source. However, quantum mechanical correlations between opposite side bands survive even for very narrow filters.