Abstract

Antibunching, photon-number squeezing, and quadrature squeezing represent characteristics of nonclassical electromagnetic fields that have been observed in the laboratory. Experiments involving nonclassical light often make use of beam splitters to superimpose light beams. We discuss the photon statistics that arise from the superimposition of two arbitrary (not necessarily independent) quantum fields at a device such as a beam splitter. The photomixing density operator of the superimposition field is presented, and the behavior of the balanced mixer is examined in the general case.¹ The failure of classical probability theory as a descriptor of the relationship between the photon statistics at the output and at the input of the beam splitter is elucidated.

© 1988 Optical Society of America