Photon indistinguishability measurements under pulsed and continuous excitation

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Abstract
The indistinguishability of successively generated photons from a single quantum emitter is most commonly measured using two-photon interference at a beam splitter. Whilst for sources excited in the pulsed regime the measured bunching of photons reflects the full wave-packet indistinguishability of the emitted photons, for continuous wave (cw) excitation, the inevitable dependence on detector timing resolution and driving strength obscures the underlying photon interference process. Here we derive a method to extract full photon wave-packet indistinguishability from cw measurements by considering the relevant correlation functions. The equivalence of both methods is experimentally verified through a comparison of cw and pulsed excitation measurements on an archetypal source of photons, a single molecule.
Funding Information
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P030130/1, EP/P01058X/1, EP/R044031/1, EP/S023607/1, EP/L015544/1)
  • Royal Society (UF160475)
  • Horizon 2020 (731473)

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