Real time $g^{(2)}$ monitoring at 100 kHz

Abstract: We introduce a technique to determine photon correlations of optical light fields in real time. The method is based on ultrafast phase-randomized homodyne detection and allows us to follow the temporal evolution of the second-order correlation function $g^{(2)}(0)$ of a light field. We demonstrate the capabilities of our approach by applying it to a laser diode operated in the threshold region. In particular, we are able to monitor the emission dynamics of the diode switching back and forth between lasing and spontaneous emission with a $g^{(2)}(0)$-sampling rate of 100 kHz.