Emergence of super-Poissonian light from indistinguishable single-photon emitters

• Main Authors: Kovalenko, A, Babjak, D, Lešundák, A, Podhora, L, Lachman, L, Obšil, P, Pham, T, Číp, O, Filip, R, Slodička, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 19.09.2022
• Subjects: Physics - Atomic Physics; Physics - Quantum Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2209.09059

The optical interference constitutes a paramount resource in modern physics. At the scale of individual atoms and photons, it is a diverse concept that causes different coherent phenomena. We present the experimental characterization of both coherent and statistical properties of light emitted from ensembles of trapped ions increasing with a number of contributing phase-incoherent independent atomic particles ranging from a single to up to several hundreds. It conclusively demonstrates how super-Poissonian quantum statistics non-trivially arises purely from the finite number of indistinguishable single-photon emitters in the limit of a single detection mode. The achieved new optical emission regime in which these independent atoms contribute coherently to the super-Poissonian statistics provides a new perspective on the emergence of optical coherence at the atomic scale and constitutes a unique toolbox for its generation and control at the most microscopic level.