Abstract

For a mixture of an arbitrary number of sinusoidal coherent components and chaotic light with a rational spectral density having simple poles, the probability-generating function h(z) of the number of photoelectrons ejected by the light in an interval is expressed in terms of certain finite determinants. It figures in the integrands of contour integrals in the complex plane for the cumulative and complementary cumulative distributions of the number of photoelectron counts. When these are evaluated by numerical integration, h(z) can be computed at each point on the contour by standard computer routines for solving algebraic equations and evaluating determinants, permitting precise and efficient computation of the photocount distributions.

© 1987 Optical Society of America

Computation of photoelectron counting distributions by numerical contour integration

Carl W. Helstrom
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 2(5) 674-682 (1985)

Photoelectron Count Distributions Due to Periodic Irradiance Modulation*†

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J. Opt. Soc. Am. 61(7) 934-938 (1971)

Weak-scatterer generalization of the K-density function. II. Probability density of total phase

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Design of optimal imaging concentrators for partially coherent sources: ratio of encircled energy criterion

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