Fluctuation-Driven Nonlinear Amplification of Quantum Statistics

Abstract:Photon statistics have moved to the forefront of modern optics, as intensity fluctuations and correlations shape multiphoton interactions and reveal information beyond mean-intensity measurements. Developing high-quality photon sources with pronounced correlations is a fundamental necessity in these fields. Here we demonstrate fluctuation-driven nonlinear statistical amplification of quantum light in spontaneous four-wave mixing using filtered amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). Extending the coherent-pump framework to fluctuating fields, we show how nonlinear weighting of pump intensity combines with bosonic bunching to amplify quantum statistics and reshape temporal correlations. In a SiN microring, ASE pumping increases the zero-delay unconditional second-order correlation from 2.01 to 7.58 and extends the Hanbury Brown--Twiss correlation time by a factor of approximately 2.4. The super-bunched quantum source nevertheless retains heralded single-photon behaviour with $g_H^{(2)}(0)\simeq0.04$, while the same ASE pump supports time--energy entanglement in a silicon waveguide with a raw Franson visibility of 89.84\%. These results establish driving-field statistics as a design dimension for quantum light, broadening the horizons for research into higher-order correlations and nonlinear physics.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Optics (physics.optics)

arXiv:2609.26674 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.26674v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.26674 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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