Generator of arbitrary classical photon statistics

TL;DR

This paper introduces an experimentally demonstrated device capable of generating light with any desired classical photon-number distribution, enabling advanced simulations and calibrations in quantum optics.

Contribution

The paper presents a universal, high-fidelity method for generating arbitrary classical photon statistics using programmable acousto-optical modulation, with high precision and fast transition times.

Findings

Successfully generated arbitrary photon statistics up to 500 photons

Achieved high fidelity <0.001 for low photon numbers

Demonstrated control over various distributions including Poissonian and heavy-tailed

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a device for generating light with arbitrary classical photon-number distribution. We use programmable acousto-optical modulation to control the intensity of light within the dynamic range of more than 30 dB and inter-level transitions faster than 500 ns. We propose a universal method that allows high-fidelity generation of user-defined photon statistics. Extremely high precision <0.001 can be reached for lower photon numbers, and faithful tail behavior can be reached for very high photon numbers. We demonstrate arbitrary statistics generation for up to 500 photons. The proposed device can produce any classical light statistics with given parameters including Poissonian, super-Poissonian, thermal, and heavy-tailed distributions like log-normal. The presented method can be used to simulate communication channels, calibrate the response of photon-number-resolving detectors, or probe physical phenomena sensitive to photon statistics.