Research Science Institute - Chennai IIT-Madras

Photon Statistics Of Coherent

And Incoherent Light
M.V. Satyanarayanan1, Kaushik2, S. Kredai Raaman3,
and N.S. Harshwanth4
1
Professor, Department of Physics, IIT-Madras
2
Research Scholar, Department of Physics, IIT-Madras
3
Student, Bala Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School
4
Student, D.A.V. Public School

Received : 04/06/2019

Abstract
This article breifly discusses certain properties of coherent
and incoherent light, and analyses the intrinsic randomness in
the emission process to derive some relevant statistical data.

Keywords: Photon Statistics, Probability Distributions

1. Classical Optics wavelength. An important aspect of

Classically, electromagnetic radiation
consists of electromagnetic waves, which
are synchronized oscillations
of electric and magnetic fields that
propagate at the speed of light. In
homogeneous, isotropic media, the
oscillations of the two fields are
perpendicular to each other and
perpendicular to the direction of energy
and wave propagation, forming
a transverse wave.
The wave-like nature of electric and
magnetic fields and their symmetry was
uncovered by James Clerk Maxwell, who
derived a wave form of the electric and
magnetic equations. Because the speed of
EM waves predicted by the wave equation
coincided with the measured speed of
light, Maxwell concluded that light
itself is an EM wave. Maxwell's equations
were confirmed by Heinrich Hertz through
experiments with radio waves.
A wave consists of successive troughs and
crests, and the distance between two
adjacent crests or troughs is called the
light's nature is its frequency. The
frequency of a wave is its rate of
oscillation and is measured in hertz.
Different frequencies undergo different
angles of refraction, a phenomenon known
as dispersion.
A monochromatic electromagnetic wave can
be characterized by its frequency or
wavelength, its peak amplitude, its phase
relative to some reference phase, its
direction of propagation and its
polarization.
Electromagnetic waves in free space must
be solutions of Maxwell's electromagnetic
wave equation. Two main classes of
solutions are known, namely plane waves
and spherical waves. The plane waves may
be viewed as the limiting case of
spherical waves at a very large (ideally
infinite) distance from the source.
1.1 Coherence
Two wave sources are perfectly coherent
if they have a constant phase difference
and the same frequency, and the same

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waveform. Coherence is an ideal property
of waves that enables stationary (i.e.
temporally and spatially constant)
interference. Interference is the
superposition of two or more waves
resulting in a new wave pattern. More
generally, coherence describes all
properties of the correlation between
physical quantities of a single wave, or
between several waves or wave packets.
Here, we shall refer to spatial
coherence, wherein the waves constituting
emissions are always in phase along the
wavefront.
1.2 Polarization
Polarization is a property applying to
transverse waves that specifies the
geometrical orientation of the
oscillations. Light also has a
polarization, which is the direction in
which the electric field oscillates.
Unpolarized light is composed of
incoherent light waves with random
polarization angles. The electric field
of the unpolarized light wanders in every
direction and changes in phase over the
coherence time of the two light waves.
2. Quantum Optics
According to quantum theory, light may be
considered not only to be as an
electromagnetic wave but also as a
"stream" of particles called photons
which travel with c, the vacuum speed of
light. These particles should not be
considered to be classical billiard
balls, but as quantum mechanical
particles described by a wavefunction
spread over a finite region.
Each particle carries one quantum of
energy, equal to hf, where h is Planck's
constant and f is the frequency of the
light. That energy possessed by a single
photon corresponds exactly to the
transition between discrete energy levels
in an atom (or other system) that emitted
the photon - a phenomenon termed the
photoelectric effect; material absorption
of a photon is the reverse process.
Einstein's explanation of spontaneous
emission also predicted the existence of
stimulated emission, the principle upon
which the laser rests.
3. Photon Statistics
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Photon statistics is the theoretical and
experimental study of the statistical
distributions produced in photon counting
experiments, which use photodetectors to
analyze the intrinsic statistical nature
of photons in a light source. In these
experiments, light incident on the
photodetector generates photoelectrons
and a counter registers electrical pulses
generating a statistical distribution of
photon counts.
4. Thermal Radiation
Thermal radiation is electromagnetic
radiation generated by the thermal motion
of particles in matter. All matter with a
temperature greater than absolute zero
emits thermal radiation. Particle motion
results in charge-acceleration or dipole
oscillation which produces
electromagnetic radiation.
If a radiation-emitting object meets the
physical characteristics of a black body
in thermodynamic equilibrium, the
radiation is called blackbody radiation.
A black body or blackbody is an idealized
physical body that absorbs all incident
electromagnetic radiation, regardless of
frequency or angle of incidence. Planck's
law describes the spectrum of blackbody
radiation, which depends solely on the
object's temperature. The thermal
radiation power of a black body per unit
area of radiating surface per unit of
solid angle and per unit frequency ν is
given by Planck's law as :
hυ 3 1
u(ν ,Τ )=
c2 hν
kΒ Τ
e −1
Wien's displacement law determines the
most likely frequency of the emitted
radiation, and the Stefan–Boltzmann law
gives the radiant intensity.
4.1 Photon Statistics
A source emitting weak incoherent
monochromatic light is observed by a
photon counter with an arbitrarily large
resolution. Thus, we see that the
probability of finding n photons with a
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characteristic angular frequency ω is In most lasers, lasing begins with

given by a Boltzmann distribution. stimulated emission amplifying random
spontaneously emitted photons present in
−nℏω the gain medium. Stimulated emission
kB T produces light that matches the input
e x −n
Ρω ,Τ ( n )= −nℏω
= −n
=x n ( 1−x ) signal in wavelength, phase, and
∑x polarization. This, combined with the
∑e k T B

filtering effect of the optical resonator

gives laser light its characteristic
x
ń=∑ n × Ρω , Τ ( n )=∑ n x n ( 1−x )= coherence, and may give it uniform
1−x polarization and monochromaticity,
n depending on the resonator's design.
1 ń
Ρω ,Τ (n)=Ρń ( n)=
[
( ń+1) ( ń+ 1) ] Many lasers produce a beam that can be
approximated as a Gaussian beam; such
beams have the minimum divergence
Thus, we obtain that the photon
possible for a given beam diameter. Near
statistics of thermal light follow a
the "waist" (or focal region) of a laser
Bose-Einstein distribution for a single
beam, it is highly collimated: the
mode; for multi-modal thermal light, this
wavefronts are planar, normal to the
resolves into a Poisson distribution. We
direction of propagation, with no beam
also observe that the probability
divergence at that point.
distribution can now be determined in
terms of the mean photon count.
That is possible due to the light being
of a single spatial mode. This unique
4.1.1 Mean property of laser light, spatial
coherence, cannot be replicated using
We derive the mean value for the photon
standard light sources (except by
statistics of incoherent light as the
discarding most of the light) as can be
second term of the Planck distribution.
appreciated by comparing the beam from a
1 flashlight (torch) or spotlight to that
ń= ℏω
of almost any laser.
kB T
e −1 5.1 Photon Statistics
4.1.2 Variance A source emitting weak coherent
monochromatic light is observed by a
We also derive the variance for a Bose-
photon counter with an arbitrarily large
Einstein distribution; N is the number of
resolution. The ordered nature of the
modes of light present.
light allows us to estimate the mean
¿ probability p of finding a single photon
in a very small time interval, which we
4.1.3 Relative Fluctuation shall insert in binomial distribution.

We observe that, for incoherent light, ń

the relative fluctuation in the mean
Ρh́ ω (Δ t )=
N
photon count remains large even for very
N!
large systems. lim Ρh́ ω (n Δ t)= lim
N→∞ N→∞ [ n ! ( N−n)!
× p n (1− p)n
]
Δn 1
lim
ń → ∞
=lim 1+ =1
ń ń → ∞ ń √ lim Ρh́ ω (n Δt)=
N→∞
ńn
n!
×e
−ń

5. LASER Light
We thus obtain Poissonian photon
statistics for perfectly coherent light,

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s the number of such time intervals
approaches infinity.
5.1.1 Variance
It is observed that the photon statistics
of perfectly coherent light follow
Poissonian photon statistics, with the
variance equalling the mean.
If variance exceeds the mean, we obtain a
super-Poissonian distribution; this
specifies light that is less ordered than
perfectly coherent light, such as light
that fluctuates in intensity.
However, if variance is less than the
mean, like for sub-Poissonian light; this
describes something more ordered than
perfectly coherent light, and is hard to
imagine; this arises from certain quantum
properties of light.
5.1.2 Relative Fluctuation
We observe that, for perfectly coherent
light, the relative fluctuation becomes
negligible for very large system sizes or
mean photon counts.
lim 1
Δ n ń →∞
lim = =0
ń → ∞ ń √ ń
6. Inferences
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We observe that the variance in the mean
photon count for incoherent light is
significantly greater than that for
coherent light. We thus infer that an
incoherent source of light emits
irregularly, while a coherent source
emits regularly; these defining photon
statistics can be used to obtain certain
information about an unknown source of
light through its emissions.
Acknowledgements
This article would not have been possible
without the assistance and guidance
rendered to us by our mentor, Professor
M. V. Satyanarayanan, and his reserch
scholar, Kaushikh. We thank Research
Science Institute - Chennai and IIT
Madras for this wonderful opportunity.
References
Mark Fox, Quantum Optics : An
Introduction, 2006 [OUP]
Harry Paul, Introduction to Quantum
Optics : From Light Quanta to Quantum
Teleportation, 2004 [CUP]
Emil Wolf, Introduction to the Theory of
Coherence and Polarization, 2007, [CUP]
Wikipedia.org