Proposed optical Stern–Gerlach experiment

Y.-T. Chough

Leon Karpa, Martin Weitz

Gil Bashan, Avishay Eyal, Moshe Tur +1 more

The Stern-Gerlach experiment, a seminal quantum physics experiment, demonstrated the intriguing phenomenon of particle spin quantization, leading to applications in matter-wave interferometry and weak-value measurements. Over the years, several optical experiments have exhibited similar behavior to the Stern-Gerlach experiment, revealing splitting in both spatial and angular domains. Here we show, theoretically and experimentally, that the Stern-Gerlach effect can be extended into the time and frequency domains. By harnessing Kerr nonlinearity in optical fibers, we couple signal and idler pulses using two pump pulses, resulting in the emergence of two distinct eigenstates whereby the signal and idler are either in phase or out of phase. This nonlinear coupling emulates a synthetic magnetization, and by varying it linearly in time, one eigenstate deflects towards a higher frequency, while the other deflects towards a lower frequency. This effect can be utilized to realize an all-optical, phase-sensitive frequency beam splitter, establishing a new paradigm for classical and quantum data processing of frequency-bin superposition states.

Jared R. Stenson, Jean-François S. Van Huele

Joseph March Brom, Frank Rioux

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.

Hou Yu-de

Stern-Gerlach experiment was an important experiment in the 20th century.Stern got the Nobel Prize because of this achievement.Recently,the author found some sources about Stern-Gerlach experiment,which show much difference from old understanding of the experiment.By analyzing and comparing the sources with the old understanding of the experiment,the author gets some new insights on the process from designing to making achievements of the experiment.