Mode structure reconstruction by detected and undetected light

Abstract

We introduce a novel technique for the reconstruction of multimode optical fields, based on simultaneously exploiting both the generalized Glauber's $K^{th}$-order correlation function $g^{(K)}$ and a recently proposed anti-correlation function (dubbed $\theta^{(K)}$) which is resilient to Poissonian noise. We experimentally demonstrate that this method yields mode reconstructions with higher fidelity with respect to those obtained with reconstruction methods based only on $g^{(K)}$'s, even requiring less "a priori" information. The reliability and versatility of our technique make it suitable for a widespread use in real applications of optical quantum measurement, from quantum information to quantum metrology, especially when one needs to characterize ensembles of single-photon emitters in the presence of background noise (due, for example, to residual excitation laser, stray light, or unwanted fluorescence).