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arXiv:physics/0002023

Interfering with Interference: a Pancharatnam Phase Polarimeter

Jeremy Heyl

Published Feb 14, 2000• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A simple variation of the traditional Young's double slit experiment can demonstrate several subtleties of interference with polarized light, including Berry and Pancharatnam's phase. Since the position of the fringes depends on the polarization state of the light at the input, the apparatus can also be used to measure the light's polarization without a quarter-wave plate or an accurate measurement of the light's intensity. In principle this technique can be used for any wavelength of photon as long as one can effectively polarize the incoming radiation.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.physics/0002023

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A simple variation of the traditional Young's double slit experiment can demonstrate several subtleties of interference with polarized light, including Berry and Pancharatnam's phase. Since the position of the fringes depends on the polarization state of the light at the input, the apparatus can also be used to measure the light's polarization without a quarter-wave plate or an accurate measurement of the light's intensity. In principle this technique can be used for any wavelength of photon as long as one can effectively polarize the incoming radiation.
Interference is a classic property of waves. It can be seen most clearly when a coherent wave is split into two partial waves that are then recombined to produce periodic variations in the measured intensity. These variations can be observed directly as a pattern of bright and dark interference fringes on a screen. The classic interferometer set-up is the Young's double-slit experiment: a small light source emitting in a narrow frequency band is placed on one side of the slits, and an interference pattern is observed at the screen on the other side (figure a). The fringes are bright where the partial waves interfere constructively, and dark where the interference is destructive.
Young’s dual-pinhole interference experiment with arbitrary fully correlated and polarized vector light fields leads to a Pancharatnam–Berry geometric phase that is related to the associated dynamical phase. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how the dynamical phase across the interference pattern can be deciphered from the total phase, thereby leaving only the geometric phase. Our results constitute the first genuine interferometric phase measurements that yield the Pancharatnam–Berry geometric phase in Young’s two-beam interference setup.
The interference of single photons going through a double slit is a compelling demonstration of the wave and particle nature of light in the same experiment. Single photons produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion can be used for this purpose. However, it is particularly challenging to implement this due to coherency and resolution challenges. In this article, we present a table-top laboratory arrangement suitable for the undergraduate instruction laboratory that overcomes these challenges. The apparatus scans a single detector to produce a plot showing the interference patterns of single photons. We include experimental data obtained using this setup, demonstrating double-slit and single-slit interference as well as quantum erasing through the use of sheet polarizers.
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.