Unbalanced fourth-order interference beyond coherence time

Abstract

Interferometry has been used widely in sensing application. However, the technique is limited by the finite coherence time of the light sources when the interference paths are not balanced. Higher-order interference effects involve intensity correlations between multiple detectors and may have the advantage over the traditional second-order interference effect exhibited in only one detector. We discuss various scenarios with unbalanced delays in different paths in fourth-order interference exhibited in coincidence between two detectors. We find, in some cases, interference effect persists even when the delays are much larger than the coherence time of the sources. We also extend the discussion to nonstationary pulsed fields, which need to consider the pulse shape and require a different treatment. These results will be useful in remote sensing applications.