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Chinese Physics B

Interference nature of light

Zhixin Yao, Zhong Jian-Wei, Mao Bang-Ning, Bailiang Pan

Published Feb 1, 2008• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Interference of light has been reinvestigated theoretically by linear superposition of two different state-vector functions, of which each describes the photons from one of two different light sources in both polarization and intensity. By the use of microscopic parameters for a photon, namely probability amplitude and phase, it is again validated that interference of light occurs only between the same photons possessing a set of the selfsame eigenvalues.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/17/2/037

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•Apr 19, 2016•0 citations
Interference of light has been reinvestigated theoretically by linear superposition of two different state-vector functions, of which each describes the photons from one of two different light sources in both polarization and intensity. By the use of microscopic parameters for a photon, namely probability amplitude and phase, it is again validated that interference of light occurs only between the same photons possessing a set of the selfsame eigenvalues.
The conditions are examined under which interference effects should be observable in the superposition of two light beams derived from independent sources. The quantum-mechanical description of these effects differs from the classical description principally in that it is necessarily based on expectation values of the light intensity at one or more space-time points. It is shown that pure states of the radiation field which are not energy states give rise to interference effects, but in that case the two beams cannot meaningfully be described as statistically independent. For a realistic description mixed states have to be introduced, when the expectation value of the intensity gives no indication of interference effects. On the other hand, the intensity correlation at two space-time points is a periodic function of the separation of the points and indicates the presence of transient interference effects. The effects become readily observable only when the average photon occupation number of each cell of phase space is appreciably greater than 1, and this explains why laser beams were needed for the experimental observations. It is pointed out that, even in these experiments, each photon may be regarded as interfering only with itself.
Any superposition effect as measured (SEM) by us is the summation of simultaneous stimulations experienced by a detector due to the presence of multiple copies of a detectee each carrying different values of the same parameter. We discus the cases with light beams carrying same frequency for both diffraction and multiple beam Fabry-Perot interferometer and also a case where the two superposed light beams carry different frequencies. Our key argument is that if light really consists of indivisible elementary particle, photon, then it cannot by itself create superposition effect since the state vector of an elementary particle cannot carry more than one values of any parameter at the same time. Fortunately, semiclassical model explains all light induced interactions using quantized atoms and classical EM wave packet. Classical physics, with its deeper commitment to Reality Ontology, was better prepared to nurture the emergence of Quantum Mechanics and still can provide guidance to explore nature deeper if we pay careful attention to successful classical formulations like Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral.
Summary form only given. The superposition principle is at the heart of quantum mechanics and plays the central role in interference phenomena in quantum mechanics. Quantum interference differs from classical interference because of particle nature of light. In a quantum mechanical picture, interference occurs because there are indistinguishable ways of an event to occur. Whenever which-path information is given to the system, interference disappears. We have experimentally demonstrated that two-photon interference occurs for biphoton amplitudes arising from two well-separated pump pulses.
Any superposition effect as measured (SEM) by us is the summation of simultaneous stimulations experienced by a detector due to the presence of multiple copies of a detectee each carrying different values of the same parameter. We discus the cases with light beams carrying same frequency for both diffraction and multiple beam Fabry-Perot interferometer and also a case where the two superposed light beams carry different frequencies. Our key argument is that if light really consists of indivisible elementary particle, photon, then it cannot by itself create superposition effect since the state vector of an elementary particle cannot carry more than one values of any parameter at the same time. Fortunately, semiclassical model explains all light induced interactions using quantized atoms and classical EM wave packet. Classical physics, with its deeper commitment to Reality Ontology, was better prepared to nurture the emergence of Quantum Mechanics and still can provide guidance to explore nature deeper if we pay careful attention to successful classical formulations like Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral.
Interference effects produced by the superposition of the light beams from two independent single-mode lasers have been investigated experimentally. It is found that interference takes place even under conditions in which the light intensities are so low that, with high probability, one photon is absorbed before the next one is emitted by one or the other source. Since the average number of registered photons per trial was only about 10, photon correlation techniques were required to demonstrate the interference. The interpretation of the experiment, and the question whether it demonstrates interference between two photons, are discussed.
Optical interference is regarded as a classical phenomenon and is usually completely described in classical terms, in which optical fields are represented by classical waves. Does it mean that optical interference, which is fundamentally ascribable to the phenomenon of a superposition of wave amplitudes, cannot be applied to test quantum phenomena? The superposition principle is at the heart of quantum physics and one could expect that it should distinguish the quantum nature of light from thewave nature. Our experience based on extensive theoretical analysis and experimental observations shows that classical and quantum theories of optical interference readily explain the presence of an interference pattern resulting from the first-order coherence. However, there are interference effects involving the higher order (second-order) coherence that distinguish the quantum (photon) nature of light from the wave nature. Quantum interference has recently returned to prominence because of its utility in manipulating spontaneous emission and other radiative properties of atomic systems. In this chapter, we present elementary concepts and definitions of both the classical and quantum theory of optical interference and discuss similarities and differences between these two approaches [80].