How Colors Influence Numbers: Photon Statistics of Parametric Downconversion

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model explaining photon number distributions in parametric downconversion, resolving conflicting experimental observations and aligning well with empirical data.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical framework based on physical quantities that accurately predicts photon statistics in PDC, clarifying previous experimental discrepancies.

Findings

The model matches experimental data with high accuracy.

It explains the conflicting photon distribution observations.

Provides a physical basis for photon statistics in PDC.

Abstract

Parametric downconversion (PDC) is a technique of ubiquitous experimental significance in the production of non-classical, photon-number correlated twin beams. Standard theory of PDC as a two-mode squeezing process predicts and homodyne measurements observe a thermal photon number distribution per beam. Recent experiments have obtained conflicting distributions. In this paper, we explain the observation by an a-priori theoretical model solely based on directly accessible physical quantities. We compare our predictions with experimental data and find excellent agreement.