An optical multimode fiber as pseudothermal light source

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple, low-cost optical multimode fiber setup that acts as a pseudothermal light source, demonstrating Gaussian random source characteristics through photon statistics and spatial correlations.

Contribution

The authors present a novel, flexible, and cost-effective pseudothermal light source using multimode fiber, with detailed characterization of its statistical properties.

Findings

Exhibits all characteristics of a Gaussian random source

Demonstrates high directional light emission

Flexible and low-cost setup

Abstract

We report on a novel pseudothermal light source based on laser light coupled into an optical multimode fiber. The setup is simple, of low cost, exhibits inherently high directional light emission and allows for a flexible arrangement. By measuring the photon statistics and spatial two point intensity correlations in the far field we show that the setup exhibits all characteristics of a gaussian random source.