Abstract

The classical theory of radiation predicts various inequalities that are violated in a quantum-mechanical description of the radiation field. Thus certain photon correlation measurements provide a means of testing predictions of both theories. The phenomena of photon antibunching and violation of Cauchy Schwarz inequalities disagree with the predictions of classical theory and are in agreement with quantum mechanics. In another class of correlation experiments, Bell’s theorem¹ shows that the predictions of any local hidden-variable theory cannot agree in general with the results of quantum mechanics. We suggest an optical experiment in which a correlated state of photons may be prepared. This state shows a violation of Bell’s inequalities as well as other nonclassical features of light, namely, photon anti- bunching and squeezing.

© 1984 Optical Society of America