Measuring the second order correlation function and the coherence time using random phase modulation

A new approach to measure the second order correlation function g((2)) and the coherence time was investigated. The g((2)) was calculated from the photon pair time interval distribution by direct numerical self-convolution with the high order correction. The accuracy of this method was examined using an optical fiber based Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometer with a pseudo-thermal light source. We found that the significance of the high order correction is related to the factor (I) over bar tau(c), which is the overlapping of the photon wave packets. A novel technique was also demonstrated to measure the coherence time tau(c) of a light source using the random phase modulation. This method is more suitable for a weak light source with a long coherence time using a simple experimental setup. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America