Mirror-assisted backscattering interferometry to measure the first-order correlation function of the light emitted by quantum scatterers

We present a new method to obtain the first-order temporal correlation function, g⁽¹⁾ (τ), of the light scattered by an assembly of point-like quantum scatterers, or equivalently its spectral power distribution. This new method is based on the mirror-assisted backscattering interferometric setup. The contrast of its angular fringes was already linked in the past to the convolution of g⁽¹⁾ (τ) for different Rabi frequencies taking into account the incoming spatial intensity profile of the probe beam, but we show here that by simply adding a half waveplate to the interferometer in a specific configuration, the fringe contrast becomes g⁽¹⁾ (τ) of the light scattered by atoms, which are now all subjected to the same laser intensity. This new method has direct application to obtain the saturated spectrum of quantum systems. We discuss some non-trivial aspects of this interferometric setup, and propose an analogy with a double Mach-Zehnder interferometer.