Journal of Modern Optics

Wave-particle duality of broadband light

R. J. Rostron, A. Homer, Gareth O. Roberts

Published Mar 30, 2006• 1 citation

Abstract

We describe and analyse a simple experiment based on interference of thermally distributed broadband photons which demonstrates quantitatively the gradual trade-off between knowledge of the trajectory of a quantum particle and its wave-like character as expressed via the inequality V 2 + K 2 ≤ 1. The experiment relies upon colour-selective detection of light passing through each slit of a Young's double-slit arrangement: path information K is deduced from the overlapping bandwidths of the interfering light and the classical first-order degree of coherence, and wave information V is obtained from the fringe visibility. A classical Fourier analysis of the experiment is given which reproduces the observed interferograms.

DOI: 10.1080/09500340600581983

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