Abstract

The different kinds of photon statistics for given mean values $\overline{N}$ of the number operator cannot completely be ordered in a linear way by the real continuous parameter of the variance $\overline{{\left(\Delta N\right)}^2}$ of the photon number as the motions of super-Poissonian $\left(\overline{{\left(\Delta N\right)}^2}>\overline{N}\right)$ and sub-Poissonian statistics $\left(\overline{{\left(\Delta N\right)}^2}>\overline{N}\right)$ more or less imply. This means that a photon statistic which is neither super-Poissonian nor sub-Poissonian can be very far from Poissonian statistics. The class of squeezed coherent states provides already such cases where the continuous transition from super- Poissonian to sub-Poissonian through non-Poissonian statistics is possible.

© 1994 IEEE