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Single photon quantum erasing: a demonstration experiment

  • Dimitrova, Todorka Lulcheva Physics Faculty, University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria - Physics Department, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Weis, Antoine Physics Department, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
    07.04.2010
Published in:
  • European Journal of Physics. - 2010, vol. 31, no. 3, p. 625
Instrumentation and measurement
Optics, quantum optics and lasers
Education and communication
English In the conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics the interference of particles in a two-beam interferometer is closely related to the problem of which-way information. One of the mysteries of quantum mechanics relies on the assumption that the wavefunction of each photon propagates simultaneously along both classically allowed paths, and that interference arises as a consequence of the indistinguishability of those paths. Any attempt to obtain which-way information by putting individual labels on the photons in each pathway inevitably destroys interference. However, even in cases in which the photons carry which-way labels, it is possible to erase those labels after the particle has left the interferometer. The erasing process (partly or completely) destroys the which-way information, and thereby restores interference. This phenomenon is known as quantum erasing. Here we present a lecture demonstration experiment of quantum erasing based on a Mach–Zehnder interferometer operated with single photons.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Physique
Language
  • English
Classification
Physics
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/301524
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