Effect of Light Polarization on Hanbury Brown-Twiss Experiment
Dongshi Guan, Jun Xiong, Su-Heng Zhang, Hongchao Liu, Li Lü · Acta Sinica Quantum Optica · 2009
This article studies,both theoretically and experimentally,how the degree of polarization and the polarization state of polarized light affect the normalized second order correlation g(2) in Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment.In the experiment,the plane polarized light is changed into elliptically polarized light by passing it through a 1/4 wave plate.By rotating the wave plate,the polarization state of light can be changed.Two beams of light with mutually perpendicular vibration direction,same propagation direction and random phase difference are compounded into a partly polarized light.By adjusting the intensity of one beam of the light,the degree of polarization can be changed.It is shown that for polarized light,the state of polarization causes no change in g(2).On the other hand,for light with different degrees of polarization(P),g(2) is a quadratic function of P.For natural light,P=0,and the maximum g(2) in theory is 1.5;for polarized light,P=1,and the maximum g(2) in theory is 2.