Ultrashort coherence times in partially polarized stationary optical beams measured by two-photon absorption

We measure the recently introduced electromagnetic temporal degree of coherence of a stationary, partially polarized, classical optical beam. Instead of recording the visibility of intensity fringes, the spectrum, or the polarization characteristics, we introduce a novel technique based on two-photon absorption. Using a Michelson interferometer equipped with polarizers and a specific GaAs photocount tube, we obtain the two fundamental quantities pertaining to the fluctuations of light: the degree of coherence and the degree of polarization. We also show that the electromagnetic intensity-correlation measurements with two-photon absorption require that the polarization dynamics, i.e., the time evolution of the instantaneous polarization state, is properly taken into account. We apply the technique to unpolarized and polarized sources of amplified spontaneous emission (Gaussian statistics) and to a superposition of two independent, narrow-band laser beams of different mid frequencies (non-Gaussian statistics). For these two sources femtosecond-range coherence times are found that are in good agreement with the traditional spectral measurements. Although previously employed for laser pulses, two-photon absorption provides a new physical principle to study electromagnetic coherence phenomena in classical and quantum continuous-wave light at extremely short time scales.