Engineering Photon Statistics of Spatial Light Modes

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to engineer photon statistics of spatial light modes by using digital micromirror devices to modulate phase screens, enabling arbitrary control of photon fluctuations across different spatial regions.

Contribution

The authors introduce a novel scheme for shaping spatial light modes with customizable photon statistics using programmable phase modulation.

Findings

Successful encoding of controllable photon statistics in spatial light modes

Demonstrated arbitrary shaping of photon fluctuations at different spatial positions

Potential applications in quantum spectroscopy, sensing, and imaging

Abstract

The nature of light sources is defined by the statistical fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. As such, the photon statistics of light sources are typically associated with distinct emitters. Here, we demonstrate the possibility of producing light beams with various photon statistics through the spatial modulation of coherent light. This is achieved by the sequential encoding of controllable Kolmogorov phase screens in a digital micromirror device. Interestingly, the flexibility of our scheme allows for the arbitrary shaping of spatial light modes with engineered photon statistics at different spatial positions. The performance of our scheme is assessed through the photon-number-resolving characterization of different families of spatial light modes with engineered photon statistics. We believe that the possibility of controlling the photon fluctuations of the light field at arbitrary spatial locations has important implications for quantum spectroscopy, sensing, and imaging.