Paper detail

Measurement of coupled spatiotemporal coherence of parametric down-conversion under negative group velocity dispersion

We present a direct measurement of the spatiotemporal coherence of parametric down-conversion in the range of negative group-velocity dispersion. In this case, the frequency-angular spectra are ring-shaped and temporal coherence is coupled to spatial coherence. Correspondingly, the lack of coherence due to spatial displacement can be compensated with the introduction of time delay. We show a simple technique, based on a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer, which allowed us to measure time coherence and near-field space coherence simultaneously, with complete control of both variables. This technique will be also suitable for the measurement of second-order coherence, where the main applications are related to the two-photon spectroscopy.