Phonon Signatures in Photon Correlations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how photon and phonon correlation functions reveal quantum effects like bunching and anti-bunching in vibronic molecules, providing insights into phonon dynamics and environment interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of photon and phonon correlations to probe quantum effects and phonon exchange in molecular systems.

Findings

Photon correlations show anti-bunching, indicating quantum behavior.

Phonon correlations exhibit bunching, revealing environmental interactions.

Cross-correlations depend on detection order, linking phonon dynamics to light emission.

Abstract

We show that the second-order, two-time correlation functions for phonons and photons emitted from a vibronic molecule in a thermal bath result in bunching and anti-bunching (a purely quantum effect), respectively. Signatures relating to phonon exchange with the environment are revealed in photon-photon correlations. We demonstrate that cross-correlation functions have a strong dependence on the order of detection giving insight into how phonon dynamics influences the emission of light. This work offers new opportunities to investigate quantum effects in condensed-phase molecular systems.