The first- and second-order temporal interference between thermal and laser light
Abstract
The first- and second-order temporal interference between two independent thermal and laser light beams is discussed by employing the superposition principle in Feynman's path integral theory. It is concluded that the first-order temporal interference pattern can not be observed by superposing thermal and laser light, while the second-order temporal interference pattern can be observed in the same condition. These predictions are experimentally verified by employing pseudothermal light to simulate thermal light. The conclusions and method in the paper can be generalized to any order interference of light or massive particles, which is helpful to understand the physics of interference.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1412.8238,
title = {The first- and second-order temporal interference between thermal and laser light},
author = {Jianbin Liu and Huaibin Zheng and Hui Chen and Yu Zhou and Fu-li Li and Zhuo Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.8238},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
10 pages, 6 figures. Submitted for publication and comments are welcome