  We present the experimental generation of light with directly observable
close-to ideal thermal statistical properties. The thermal light state is
prepared using a spontaneous Raman emission in a warm atomic vapor. The photon
number statistics is evaluated by both the measurement of second-order
correlation function and by the detailed analysis of the corresponding photon
number distribution, which certifies the quality of the Bose-Einstein
statistics generated by natural physical mechanism. We further demonstrate the
extension of the spectral bandwidth of the generated light to hundreds of MHz
domain while keeping the ideal thermal statistics, which suggests a direct
applicability of the presented source in a broad range of applications
including optical metrology, tests of robustness of quantum communication
protocols, or quantum thermodynamics.
