Observing the average trajectories of single photons in a two-slit interferometer.

Science

Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control and Institute for Optical Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, ON M5S 1A7, Canada.

Published: June 2011

A consequence of the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle is that one may not discuss the path or "trajectory" that a quantum particle takes, because any measurement of position irrevocably disturbs the momentum, and vice versa. Using weak measurements, however, it is possible to operationally define a set of trajectories for an ensemble of quantum particles. We sent single photons emitted by a quantum dot through a double-slit interferometer and reconstructed these trajectories by performing a weak measurement of the photon momentum, postselected according to the result of a strong measurement of photon position in a series of planes. The results provide an observationally grounded description of the propagation of subensembles of quantum particles in a two-slit interferometer.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1202218DOI Listing

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