Observation of Antinormally Ordered Hanbury-Brown--Twiss Correlations

We have measured antinormally ordered Hanbury-Brown--Twiss correlations for coherent states of electromagnetic field by using stimulated parametric down-conversion process. Photons were detected by stimulated emission, rather than by absorption, so that the detection responded not only to actual photons but also to zero-point fluctuations via spontaneous emission. The observed correlations were distinct from normally ordered ones as they showed excess positive correlations, i.e., photon bunching effects, which arose from the thermal nature of zero-point fluctuations.