Abstract

The amount of information transmitted via a photon beam that is modulated in s equal, discrete steps from a given maximum expected number of pulses k_max and down to a given k_min is computed. The numbers of pulses refer to the counts of a photoemissive detector. The information i reaches a maximum i_m for a certain number s = s_m for which the difference δk of the expected number of detected pulses from successive levels is about 2.7 times the rms fluctuation of the k_max level. The reliability (ratio of the information obtained in the presence of noise to the information that would be obtained without noise) of this maximum information i_m is about 0.8. i_m is very nearly a function of the single parameter $c=(k_{max}-k_{min})/{k_{min}}^{\frac{1}{2}}$. These results hold, provided that the rms fluctuation of the k_max level is not too different from that of the k_min level. For k_min = 0, maximum information is obtained with a somewhat smaller spacing δk, and its reliability is about 0.61 for k_max ≥ 20.

© 1971 Optical Society of America

Exact Values for the Information Content of Photon Beams

Ellen Hisdal
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(8) 921-923 (1969)

Information in Noisy Photon Beams

Ellen Hisdal
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 58(7) 977-984 (1968)

Information Rate in an Optical Communication Channel*

R. Jodoin and L. Mandel
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 61(2) 191-198 (1971)

Information Content of a Beam of Photons*

Ellen Hisdal
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(11) 1446-1454 (1965)

Propagation of Structural Information in Optical Wave Fields*

John T. Winthrop
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 61(1) 15-30 (1971)