Interference of classical and non-classical light

Aleksandr V. Belinsky, Давид Николаевич Клышко

John Rarity, P. R. Tapster

L. Mandeļ

Although interference of light is commonly regarded as a classical wave phenomenon, interesting fourth‐order interference effects are exhibited by correlated photon pairs, which violate classical probability. The effects manifest themselves in that the visibility is larger than allowed by classical theory, or the interference is independent of the light intensity, in violation of classical theory. In some situations classical optics predicts no interference at all, whereas quantum optics does. The interference technique has been used to measure time intervals between two photons with fsec resolution. Several examples of experiments in which non‐classical interference effects were observed will be described.

Hui Peng

Young’s double slit experiments revived the wave theory of light. The standard interpretation is that the light behaves as waves before and after passing through the double slit, and the superposition of waves produces the interference pattern. Feynman called the double slit experiment the only mystery in quantum mechanics. In this article, we experimentally show the novel universal phenomena: (1) the light is particles, but waves: within macro-distance from a diaphragm, the light rays produce non-interference patterns; while near the screen, the photons produce orthogonal interference patterns; (2) the non-interference patterns evolve to the orthogonal interference patterns gradually in the same experiment; (3) the evolution of the patterns cannot be interpreted by either classic optics or the quantum optics; (4) the non-interference patterns and the orthogonal interference patterns can show on the screen simultaneously; (5) The convex lens stops the further evolution. The experiments: (1) challenge the classical optics and quantum optics; (2) violate both Bohr’s complementarity principle and wave particle duality; (3) provide profound phenomena for developing optics and for studying the nature of light; (4) suggest that a complete theory should be able to consistently interpret all phenomena, including the non-interference pattern, the interference pattern, and the evolution from the non-interference to the interference pattern in the same wave experiment.

R. Loudon

Hui Peng

Young’s double slit experiments revived the wave theory of light. The standard interpretation is that the light behaves as waves before and after passing through the double slit, and the superposition of waves produces the interference pattern. Feynman called the double slit experiment the only mystery in quantum mechanics. In this article, we experimentally show the novel universal phenomena: (1) within macro-distance from the diaphragm, the light rays behave as photons and produce non-interference patterns; while near the screen, the photons produce interference patterns; (2) The non-interference patterns evolve to the interference patterns gradually in the same classical wave experiment; (3) the light is photons before and after passing through the double slit; (4) The convex lens stops the further evolution. The experiments: (1) challenge the wave theories of the light; (2) violate both Bohr’s complementarity principle and wave particle duality; (3) provide profound phenomena for developing optics and for studying the nature of light; (4) suggest that a complete theory should be able to consistently interpret all phenomena, including the non-interference pattern, the interference pattern, and the evolution from the non-interference to the interference pattern in the wave experiment; (5) show a new mystery that photons, as particles, distribute as waves.