Autocorrelation functions: a useful tool for both state and detector characterisation

Abstract The calculation of autocorrelation functions represents a routinely used tool to characterise quantum states of light. In this paper, we evaluate the g(2) function for detected photons in the case of mesoscopic multi-mode twin-beam states in order to fully investigate their statistical properties starting from measurable quantities. Moreover, we show that the second-order autocorrelation function is also useful to estimate the spurious effects affecting the employed Silicon-photomultiplier detectors.