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Chinese Physics Letters

Simultaneous Measurement of Fringe Visibility and Path Predictability of Wave-Particle Duality

Jie‐Hui Huang, Tao Peng, Luo-Jia Wang, Shi‐Yao Zhu

Published Aug 1, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An experimental scheme to simultaneously obtain the information of fringe visibility and path predictability is designed. In a modified Young’s double-slit experiment, two density filters rotating at different frequencies are placed before the two pineholes to encode path information. The spatial and temporal distributions of the output provide us with the wave and particle information of the single photons, respectively. The simultaneous measurement of the wave and particle information inevitably disturbs the system and thus causes some loss of the duality information, which is equal to the mixedness of the photonic state behind the density filters .

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/35/8/084202

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An experimental scheme to simultaneously obtain the information of fringe visibility and path predictability is designed. In a modified Young’s double-slit experiment, two density filters rotating at different frequencies are placed before the two pineholes to encode path information. The spatial and temporal distributions of the output provide us with the wave and particle information of the single photons, respectively. The simultaneous measurement of the wave and particle information inevitably disturbs the system and thus causes some loss of the duality information, which is equal to the mixedness of the photonic state behind the density filters .
We propose for the experimental verification of an inequality concerning wave-particle duality by Englert [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 2154 (1996)] relating (or setting) an upper limit on distinguishability and visibility in a two-way interferometer. The inequality, quantifies the concept of wave-particle duality. The considered two-way interferometer is a Young's double-slit experiment involving two four-level atoms and is a slightly modified version of that of the recent experiment by Eichmann et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2359 (1993)]. The fringe visibility depends on the detected polarization direction of the scattered light and a read out of the internal state of one of the two atoms provides a partial which-way information.
In the event in which a quantum mechanical particle can pass from an initial state to a final state along two possible paths, the duality principle states that "the simultaneous observation of wave and particle behavior is prohibited" [Scully MO, Englert B-G, Walther H (1991) Nature 351:111-116]. Whereas wave behavior is associated with the observation of interference fringes, particle behavior generally corresponds to the acquisition of which-path information by means of coupling the paths to a measuring device or part of their environment. In this paper, we show how the consequences of duality change when allowing for biased sampling, that is, postselected measurements on specific degrees of freedom of the environment of the two-path state. Our work gives insight into a possible mechanism for obtaining simultaneous high which-path information and high-visibility fringes in a single experiment. Further, our results introduce previously unidentified avenues for experimental tests of duality.
Particle and wave like properties of photons can impressively be demonstrated in Young’s double slit experiment. Usually, measurements behind the slit provide information either about the path of the single photons or interference can be observed. Today the question of “which-slit” versus “interference” in the double-slit configuration is as relevant as it was in the early days of quantum mechanics. To gain deeper insight we set up an experiment using a pair of photons generated by SPDC pumped with a higher order mode (TEM 01 ). One of the SPDC photons, the signal photon, was used to illuminate the double slit and measure the single photon interference behind it. The other photon, the idler photon, was used in a reference measurement at the position of the slit using a polarizing beam splitter. First, the signal photons were obtained at the position of the slit as a function of the position of the entangled idler photons in a coincidence measurement. From this coincidence measurement the “which-slit” information is available. In a second coincidence measurement the far field interference fringes were obtained for signal photons passing through one of the slits, only, selected by the position of the reference detector measuring the entangled idler photons. The newest results will be presented and discussed. This may provide new insights in the wave-particle dualism and thus inspire the discussion about the nature of photons.
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.
The wave-particle duality, one of the expressions of Bohr complementarity, is usually quantified by path predictability and the visibility of interference fringes. With the development of quantum resource theory, quantitative analysis of wave-particle duality is increasing, most of which are expressed in the form of specific functions. In this paper, we obtain the path-information measure for pure states by converting the coherence measure for pure states into a symmetric concave function. Then we prove the function as a path-information measure is also valid for mixed states. Furthermore, we also establish a generalized wave-particle-mixedness triality. Although the mixedness proposed in the text is not a complete mixedness measure, it also satisfies some conditions of the mixedness measure. From the perspective of resource theory, the path information we establish can be used as the measure of the resource of predictability, and the triality relationship we establish reveals the relationship among coherence, predictability, purity, and mixedness degree to a certain extent. According to our method, given either the coherence measure or path information, a particular form of wave-particle-mixedness triality can be established. This will play an important role in establishing connections between wave, particle, and other physical quantifiers.