We show how to obtain the photon distribution of a single-mode field using only avalanche photodetectors. The method is based on measuring the field at different quantum efficiencies and then inferring the photon distribution by maximum-likelihood estimation. The convergence of the method and its robustness against fluctuations are illustrated by means of numerically simulated experiments.
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0405139,
title = {Photon statistics without counting photons},
author = {Andrea R. Rossi and Stefano Olivares and Matteo G. A. Paris},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0405139},
year = {2009}
}