Physics World

Single photons on demand

Philippe Grangier, Izo I. Abram

Published Feb 1, 2003• 14 citations

Abstract

QUANTUM mechanics has gained a reputation for making counterintuitive predictions. But we rarely get the chance to witness these effects directly because, being humans, we are simply too big. Take light, for example. The light sources that are familiar to us, such as those used in lighting and imaging or in CD and DVD players, are so huge that they emit billions and billions of photons. But what if there was a light source that emitted just one photon at a time?

DOI: 10.1088/2058-7058/16/2/35

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