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

Published

June 3, 2011

Author(s)

Sacha Kocsis, Boris Braverman, Sylvain Ravets, Martin Stevens, Richard Mirin, L. Krister Shalm, Aephraim M. Steinberg

Abstract

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.

Citation

Science Magazine

Volume

332

Issue

6034

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1202218

Local Download

Keywords

Quantum Optics, Single-Photon Sources, Weak Measurements

Citation

Kocsis, S. , Braverman, B. , Ravets, S. , Stevens, M. , Mirin, R. , Shalm, L. and Steinberg, A. (2011), Observing the average trajectories of single photons in a two-slit interferometer, Science Magazine, [online], https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1202218, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=907599 (Accessed October 9, 2025)