Precise Photon Correlation Measurement of a Chaotic Laser

Abstract: The second order photon correlation g^2(tau) of a chaotic optical-feedback semiconductor laser is precisely measured using a Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometer. The accurate g^2(tau) with non-zero delay time is obtained experimentally from the photon pair time interval distribution through a ninth-order self-convolution correction. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical analysis. The relative error of g^2(tau) is no more than 0.005 within 50 ns delay time. The bunching effect and coherence time of the chaotic laser are measured via the precise photon correlation technique. This technique provides a new tool to improve the accuracy of g^2(tau) measurement and boost applications of quantum statistics and correlation.