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The Chemical Educator

Polarized Light and Quantum Mechanics: An Optical Analog of the Stern?Gerlach Experiment

Joseph March Brom, Frank Rioux

Published Aug 1, 2002• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Lecture demonstrations involving polarization of light are presented and discussed from the quantum theoretical point of view. The demonstrations clearly show that only two base states are required to describe the quantum state of a photon and they illustrate an optical analog of the Stern—Gerlach experiment that involved electrons.
DOI
10.1007/s00897020580a

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The Stern–Gerlach experiment can play an important role in teaching the formalism of quantum mechanics. In the context of a finite-dimensional Hilbert space students can learn how to prepare a specific quantum state starting from an arbitrary state, issues related to the time evolution of the wave function and quantum measurement. The Stern–Gerlach experiment can also be used to teach the distinction between the physical space where the experiment is performed and the Hilbert space where the state of the system lies, and how information about the state of the system in the Hilbert space can be exploited to interpret the possible outcomes of the experiment in physical space. Students can learn the advantages of choosing an appropriate basis to make predictions about the outcomes of experiments with different arrangements of Stern–Gerlach devices. The latter can also help students understand that an ensemble of identically prepared systems is not the same as a mixture. We discuss student difficulties with the Stern–Gerlach experiment based on written tests and interviews with advanced undergraduate and graduate students in quantum mechanics courses. We also discuss preliminary data which suggest that the Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial on the Stern–Gerlach experiment is helpful in improving student understanding of these concepts.
The Stern-Gerlach experiment holds key role for students, particularly those studying quantum mechanics, modern physics, atomic physics, and physics education.It is one of the simplest experiments that demonstrates that the microscopic world does not behave accordingly withdynamics of classical physics, thusthe Stern-Gerlach experiment allows students to follow a logical progression: Classical expectation → Experimental observation → Failure of classical explanation → Quantum hypothesis → Spin states → Mathematical formulation → Quantum measurement.
We report on two quantum polarization experiments. The first one shows that three geometrical rotations can in principle be distinguished with certainty using two photons. The second experiment shows quantum polarization properties of classically unpolarized light. We outline a new treatment of polarization in quantum optics. Our formalism differs from the usual quantum description, which uses the Stokes operators. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.