Coherence properties of high-gain twin beams

Twin-beam coherence properties are analyzed in both spatial and spectral domains at high gain, including also the regime of pump depletion. We show an increase in the size of the intensity autocorrelation and cross-correlation areas at increasing pump power, replaced by a decrease in the pump depletion regime. This effect is interpreted as a progressive loss in the mode selection occurring at high-gain amplification. The experimental determination of the number of spatiospectral modes from the measurements of the g(2)-intensity autocorrelation coefficient confirms this explanation.