Temporal intensity correlation of light scattered by a hot atomic vapor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how temporal intensity correlation measurements of light scattered by hot atomic vapor reveal photon bunching and provide insights into scattering processes, with potential applications in astrophysics.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze scattering in hot vapors using intensity correlations, revealing spectral features and scattering ratios.

Findings

Photon bunching observed at nanosecond scales.

Correlation functions reveal single vs. multiple scattering ratios.

Potential applications in astrophysical observations.

Abstract

We present temporal intensity correlation measurements of light scattered by a hot atomic vapor. Clear evidence of photon bunching is shown at very short time-scales (nanoseconds) imposed by the Doppler broadening of the hot vapor. Moreover, we demonstrate that relevant information about the scattering process, such as the ratio of single to multiple scattering, can be deduced from the measured intensity correlation function. These measurements confirm the interest of temporal intensity correlation to access non-trivial spectral features, with potential applications in astrophysics.