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arXiv:2207.14632 · Physica Scripta

On single-photon and classical interference

Stephen Mark Barnett

Published Oct 3, 2022• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract It has often been remarked that single-photon interference experiments, however complicated, seem to behave very much in the same way as those performed in the classical regime, using the field generated by a laser. This observation has the status of being ‘well-known to those who know it’, but perhaps mysterious to others. We discuss the reasons underlying the similarity and also some of the limitations of this simple idea.

DOI
10.1088/1402-4896/ac971a

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Abstract It has often been remarked that single-photon interference experiments, however complicated, seem to behave very much in the same way as those performed in the classical regime, using the field generated by a laser. This observation has the status of being ‘well-known to those who know it’, but perhaps mysterious to others. We discuss the reasons underlying the similarity and also some of the limitations of this simple idea.
How can we construct a picture of the photon from the wealth of observation material available to us? The photon appears to have a split personality: it is neither a wave nor a particle but something else which, depending on the experimental situation, exhibits a wave- or a particle-like behavior. In other words, in the photon (as in material particles such as the electron) the particle–wave dualism becomes manifest. Whereas classically the wave and the particle pictures are separate, quantum mechanics accomplishes a formal synthesis through a unified mathematical treatment. Let us look first at the wave aspect familiar from classical electrodynamics, which seems to be the most natural description. It makes all the different interference phenomena understandable, such as the “interference of the photon with itself” on the one hand and the appearance of spatial and temporal intensity correlations in a thermal radiation field on the other (which are obviously brought about by superposition of elementary waves emitted independently from different atoms). It might come as a surprise (at least for those having quantum mechanical preconceptions) that the classical theory is valid down to arbitrarily small intensities: the visibility of the interference pattern does not deteriorate even for very small intensities – the zero point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field advocated by quantum mechanics do not have a disturbing effect – and is valid not only for conventional interference experiments but also for interference between independently generated light beams (in the form of laser light).
We have developed a which-way experiment using visible light that is completely analogous to a recent experiment involving which-way measurement in atom interference. This simple experiment, easily accessible to undergraduate students and the resources of undergraduate departments, facilitates the examination of the key elements of which-way measurement, quantum erasure, and related mysteries of quantum measurement. The experiment utilizes a Mach–Zehnder interferometer, and visually demonstrates the loss of interference fringes when a which-way measurement is imposed, and the restoration of that pattern when the which-way information is destroyed. This device is also sensitive enough to observe interference fringes arising from single photons. We present a simple analysis of the interference appropriate for the coherent classical field limit and the single photon limit at a level accessible to undergraduates. We also briefly mention related issues on the nature of the photon.
Abstract The recent state-of-the-art double-slit experiments with single electrons and single photons seem to emphasize a contradictable dilemma concerning the ontological physical reality in quantum physics. Because of the importance of this problem, we propose and perform another modified laser-beam asymmetrical double-slit experiment with a constraint of single-photon interference. In the results, a Feynman condition with a mobile closing mask allows assessing the complementary contributions of photons passing through one or another slit. Under the assumption of applicable self-interference, a ‘which-way’ phenomenon is observed quantitatively in the vicinity of the main minima with low-intense interference fringes, demonstrating a possible solution to this problem. The result would encourage similar asymmetrical double-slit experiments with truly single photons or single electrons for consistent and direct observation of the wave-particle duality.
The wave aspect of light is observed experimentally through interference phenomena, and in a certain sense such observations always require a division of the given (initial) light field into two or more space-time parts. The division can only be done by introducing matter (massive particles) in the field region, and the light-matter interaction inevitably changes the initial state of the field. Not least when one is dealing with single and few-photon interference, it is good to remember again a central point of Niels Bohr, namely that no elementary phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is a registered (observed) phenomenon. It turns out that it is possible to observe interference with a quantized electromagnetic field which contains only one photon. Since the irreversible final detection destroys the photon, it is in practice necessary to repeat the experiment starting from the same initial (given) conditions. Below we shall discuss the basics of single-photon interference in the simplest terms.