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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Triangular slit interference pattern of single photons with orbital angular momentum: Another beautiful experiment?

Willamys C. Soares, Itamar Vidal, D. P. Caetano, E. J. S. Fonseca, J. Miguel Hickmann, S. Chávez-Cerda

Published Jun 1, 2009• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This work presents a single-pass diffraction experiment that demonstrates that single photons in a vortex beam in passing through three slits arranged in an equilateral triangle can interfere with themselves and provide quantitative information of their total amount of orbital angular momentum (OAM) they carry. For the experiment presented the aperture has been reduced to a very thin triangular slit. A vortex beam is created by a diffractive optical element (DOE) and then it is made to pass through the slit. This work is considered as an extension to the Young double slit experiment.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-eqec.2009.5192886

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This work presents a single-pass diffraction experiment that demonstrates that single photons in a vortex beam in passing through three slits arranged in an equilateral triangle can interfere with themselves and provide quantitative information of their total amount of orbital angular momentum (OAM) they carry. For the experiment presented the aperture has been reduced to a very thin triangular slit. A vortex beam is created by a diffractive optical element (DOE) and then it is made to pass through the slit. This work is considered as an extension to the Young double slit experiment.
The double-slit at single photon or electron level is the ubiqutous quantum interference experiment with the path phase playing a key role. On the other hand, photon's orbital angular momentum (OAM) brings a new dimension to interference problems with the spiral phase degree of freedom. In this work, we use OAM's two dimensional properties to extended the double-slit to a triple-slit configuration in the shape of an equilateral triangle, obtaining a triangular latticed single-photon counting interference pattern. In order to understand this interference pattern in terms of wave-particle duality, we have to take into account that, in contrast with the parallel double and triple slit cases, the azimuthal phase also plays a fundamental role, being undistinguishable from path phase.
We use photon OAM's two-dimensional properties to extend the double-slit to a two-dimensional triple-slit configuration in the shape of an equilateral triangle, obtaining a bidimensional triangular interference pattern at photon level, whose size depends on the OAM amount. We also show that for this pattern, in contrast with the parallel two- and three-slit cases, the azimuthal phase plays a fundamental role, being undistinguishable from the path phase. Our results confirm that only pairs, here associated to path and azimuthal phases, contribute to the two-dimensional photon detection probability, as established by Born's rule.
The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of a vortex beam has already found significant potential applications in both quantum and classical communication systems. In this study, a realization of a double-slit experiment using a Sagnac interferometer is conducted for the detection and discrimination of vortex beams. Based on the advantages of convenient and adjustable double-slit parameters of our device, we detected multiple vortex beams carrying different OAM modes and superpositions of OAM modes under laser and single-photon illumination. We also analyzed the influence of the slit parameters on the interference pattern of the vortex beams. The results show that by comparing the differences in these interference patterns, we can achieve the measurement of topological charge and complete distinction of OAM states carried by the vortex beams. Our study contributes to coding research on laser and quantum communication.
We demonstrate that by diffracting light at single photon level with orbital angular momentum (OAM) by an equilateral triangular aperture, it is possible to determine their OAM amount by simply counting the number of maxima in the side of a generated triangular shaped hexagonal lattice in the spatial photon probability distribution. The sign of the OAM is obtained by the orientation of the latticed triangle. We also show that by changing the aperture size it is possible to discriminate OAM state superpositions.
Optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) is a special property of photons and has evoked research onto the light–matter interaction in both classical and quantum regimes. In classical optics, OAM is related to an optical vortex with a helical phase structure. In quantum optics, photons with a twisted or helical phase structure will carry a quantized OAM. To our knowledge, however, so far, no experiment has demonstrated the fundamental property of the OAM at the single-photon level. In this Letter, we have demonstrated the average photon trajectories of twisted photons in a double-slit interference. We have experimentally captured the double-slit interference process of twisted photons by a time-gated intensified charge-coupled device camera, which is trigged by a heralded detection. Our work provides new perspectives for understanding the micro-behaviors of twisted particles and enables new applications in imaging and sensing.
Feynman described the double slit experiment as "a phenomenon which is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics". The double-slit experiment, performed one photon at a time, dramatically demonstrates the particle-wave duality of quantum objects by generating a fringe pattern corresponding to the interference of light (a wave phenomenon) from two slits, even when there is only one photon (a particle) at a time passing through the apparatus. The particle-wave duality of light should also apply to complex three dimensional optical fields formed by multi-path interference, however, this has not been demonstrated. Here we observe particle-wave duality of a three dimensional field by generating a trefoil optical vortex knot - one photon at a time. This result demonstrates a fundamental physical principle, that particle-wave duality implies interference in both space (between spatially distinct modes) and time (through the complex evolution of the superposition of modes), and has implications for topologically entangled single photon states, orbital angular momentum multiplexing and topological quantum computing.