Abstract

The criterion used to distinguish classical from nonclassical effects in quantum optics is based on the theory of photoelectric detection. In the semiclassical theory of photoelectric detection, the optical field enters as a stochastic intensity. Results obtained from the quantum theory can be reproduced within this stochastic formalism whenever the quantum state of the field is a statistical mixture of coherent states. When the quantum state of the field is not of this form, certain statistical properties of the observed photocurrents and photopulse sequences cannot be reproduced within the semiclassical formalism.

© 1990 Optical Society of America