Time-domain Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of quasi-thermal fields and its application in linear optical circuit characterization

TL;DR

This paper investigates the temporal correlations of quasi-thermal fields using Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, revealing Doppler-induced oscillations and proposing a method for linear optical circuit characterization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to characterize linear optical circuits using time-domain Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of quasi-thermal fields.

Findings

Doppler effect causes oscillations in temporal cross-correlation functions.

Proposes a new method for optical circuit characterization.

Demonstrates interference effects with quasi-thermal fields.

Abstract

We study temporal correlations of interfering quasi-thermal fields, obtained by scattering laser radiation on a rotating ground glass disk. We show that the Doppler effect causes oscillations in temporal cross-correlation function. Furthermore, we propose how to use Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of quasi-thermal fields in the time domain to characterize linear optical circuits.