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Journal of Quantum Information Science

Entangled Photon Pairs and Young’s Experiment

Lewis Nash

Published Jan 1, 2021• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Bohm’s variation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment may be used to reveal the path a photon travels in Young’s experiment without destroying the observed interference pattern. Photons emitted by a light-source with zero spin are incident on a screen with two narrow slits separated by a small distance, with antiparallel polarized photonic spin filters placed in front of both slits. It follows that the slit through which an incident photon passed to form an interference pattern can be determined by performing an intermediate delayed choice measurement. This experimental probe is ideal for penetrating the shroud of mystery surrounding the wave-particle duality exhibited by quantum phenomena.

DOI
10.4236/jqis.2021.114011

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Bohm’s variation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment may be used to reveal the path a photon travels in Young’s experiment without destroying the observed interference pattern. Photons emitted by a light-source with zero spin are incident on a screen with two narrow slits separated by a small distance, with antiparallel polarized photonic spin filters placed in front of both slits. It follows that the slit through which an incident photon passed to form an interference pattern can be determined by performing an intermediate delayed choice measurement. This experimental probe is ideal for penetrating the shroud of mystery surrounding the wave-particle duality exhibited by quantum phenomena.
Bohm’s variation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment may reveal the path a photon travels in Young’s experiment without causing the interference pattern to disappear. Unlike in Young’s original experiment, this hypothetical scenario involves entangled photons incident on a screen with two closely spaced narrow slits. To address the challenge of simultaneously observing both the wave and particle nature of light without violating Heisenberg’s position-momentum uncertainty principle, an apparatus that relies on the conservation of linear momentum and quantum entanglement is constructed to indirectly observe the path traveled by the entangled photons while preserving their quantum superposition. This thought experiment effectively uncovers the complex mystery surrounding the wave-particle duality inherent in quantum phenomena.
We report a quantum eraser experiment which actually uses a Young double slit to create interference. The experiment can be considered an optical analogy of an experiment proposed by Scully, Englert, and Walther [Nature (London) 351, 111 (1991)]. One photon of an entangled pair is incident on a Young double slit of appropriate dimensions to create an interference pattern in a distant detection region. Quarter-wave plates, oriented so that their fast axes are orthogonal, are placed in front of each slit to serve as which-path markers. The quarter-wave plates mark the polarization of the interfering photon and thus destroy the interference pattern. To recover interference, we measure the polarization of the other entangled photon. In addition, we perform the experiment under ``delayed erasure'' circumstances.
This experiment explores the quantum phenomenon known as the Quantum Eraser, using a variation of Young’s Double Slit experiment. Young’s Double Slit experiment demonstrates that light acts as a wave by creating an interference pattern when diffracted through two slits. If one measures which of the two slits the photons pass through, then the interference pattern is replaced by a single bright spot, as would be expected for particle-like behaviour. The “Quantum Eraser” eliminates the measurement on the photons, thereby reintroducing the interference pattern observed in Young’s original experiment. The experiment’s first stage saw Young’s Double Slit experiment recreated and an interference pattern was observed. Upon adding two orthogonally polarized filters, the photon’s path was measured, and the interference pattern was removed. By then adding a third filter which was polarized 45O relative to both other polarisers, the interference pattern was somewhat restored. For each experiment, the heights of the peaks in the interference patterns were compared to each other to examine the quality of the reproduced interference pattern based on the original double slit interference pattern. This comparison gave a quantitative result that demonstrated that the Quantum Eraser was able to restore the interference pattern to within 5 standard errors, thereby exemplifying the effect that changing the measurement conditions affects the final measurement.
Based on the basic version of the Double-slit experiment, a coherent light source, such as a laser beam, illuminates a plate pierced by two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits is observed on a screen behind the plate.The wave nature of light causes the light waves passing through the two slits to interfere, producing bright and dark bands on the screen — a result that would not be expected if light consisted of classical particles. Our new variant is as below: We shut one of the two parallel slits once the light passed the slits. Or we keep the two slits shutting and opening randomly in high speed. We believe this variant experiment could lead to a farther fundamental understanding of the Quantum Mechanics.
In this dissertation, an optical quantum eraser experiment, which can be considered an optical analogy of an experiment proposed by Scully, Englert and Walther(SEW) [1] is performed. Using photons in entangled Bell-states, we can choose whether to observe which-path information or an interference pattern. An appealing feature of this quantum eraser is that the experiement actually uses a Young double-slit to create interference. One photon of an entangled pair is incident on a Youngdouble slit of appropriate dimensions to create an interference pattern on a distant \screen". Quarter-wave plates, orientated so that their fast axes are orthogonal, are placed in front of each slit, serve as which-path markers. The presence of the quarter-wave plates destroys the interference pattern. To recover interference, an appropriate polarization measurement on the other entangled photon is performed. In addition, a \delayed quantum erasure" experiment is performed. The dangers of an erroneous interpretation of quantum theory in the delayed erasure situation are briey discussed. The generation of polarization-entangled photons using spontaneous parametric down-conversion is briey studied. It is shown that, through type-II non-colinear phase matching, the non-linear BBO (_-BaB2O4) cristal creates highly-entangled photons. Curves of polarization interference are obtained, proportional to sin(_A _ _B), with visibilities greater than 0:95.
Young’s double-slit experiment played a crucial role in establishing the wave nature of light. In this chapter, the shocking result that incident electrons yield a similar interference pattern as that formed by light waves is described. It is shown that the only way the experimental results could be explained is via a wave function description of electrons. It is also shown that, in the same experiment, the interference fringes disappear if the which-path information becomes available. This is the essence of wave–particle duality. The first of the Einstein–Bohr debates on wave-particle duality and Bohr’s principle of complementarity in the double-slit experiment is also discussed. Also presented are the counterintuitive notions of delayed choice and quantum eraser effects showing how the availability or erasure of information generated in the future can affect how the data in the present can be interpreted.