Experimental study of the momentum correlation of a pseudo-thermal field in the photon counting regime

Thermal (or pseudo-thermal) radiation has been recently proposed for imaging and interference types of experiments to simulate entangled states. We report an experimental study on the momentum correlation properties of a pseudo-thermal field in the photon counting regime. The characterization and understanding of such a light source in the context of two photon physics, especially its similarities and differences compared to entangled two-photon states, is useful in gaining knowledge of entanglement and may help us to assess the real potential of applications of chaotic light in this context.