Could Quantum Dots Between Optic Fibers Create Photon Interference?

  • #1
Quant
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TL;DR Summary
Is there interference from opposite directions of possible
propagation of a photon?
A quantum dot is placed in a line between two optic fibers
The dot can emit a photon in every direction which is unknown.

If the fibers are combined at a beamsplitter would there be interference if the photon
is not observed outside the fibers?

Do you know if somebody made such experiment?
Thanks anyone for considerations.
 
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  • #2
Quant said:
The dot can emit a photon in every direction which is unknown.
By “in every direction which is unknown” do you mean the photon is prepared with some momentum is some direction, but the emission mechanism is such that that direction is random? Or do you mean that we have a spherical wavefront until some interaction happens?

If the latter, you will want to Google for “Mott problem” and work through its solutions first.
 
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  • #3
Yes this is Mott problem but not with alpha particles but photons.
i know it for long time. I think that according to Mott decision the possibility
will travel tru both fibers and one must observe interference after the beam
splitter.
The question is has it been done experimentally?
This will confirm that the "wave function" of the photon is expanding sphere from
start to finish.
 
  • #4
Quant said:
This will confirm that the "wave function" of the photon is expanding sphere from
start to finish.
Methinks the devil here is in the detail. Exactly what the experiment confirms will depend upon how you choose to set it up and then upon interpretation of the results. Can you flesh out the excitation of the dot, for instance, and the rest of the proposed geometry?
I was totally unaware of the Mott problem and therefore appreciate this line of inquiry!
 
  • #5
hutchphd said:
Can you flesh out the excitation of the dot, for instance, and the rest of the proposed geometry?
I was totally unaware of the Mott problem and therefore appreciate this line of inquiry!
In QDs electron is excited by UV and then radiates. I am not aware in their geometry
but suppose that the radiation can be emitted at least to 150 degree which suffice
for the goal. What do you mean to depend on interpretation? This will not decide
between them but the shape of 'photon'.
 
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  • #6
Is there any specific reason why you choose quantum dots for this? At least self-organized QDs are usually lens-shaped and therefore inherently asymmetric. The symmetry properties are much better, e.g., for single ions in a Paul trap.

This is not exactly the geometry you mention, but I think this captures the spirit of what you are interested in:
https://www.nature.com/articles/35097017

J. Eschner et al., "Light interference from single atoms and their mirror images", Nature 413, 495 (2001). It is not on the ArXiv, but you might find free versions hosted by the authors on the internet. This is from Rainer Blatt's group and Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler was the postdoc supervising the experiment. What Ferdinand did was to investigate the emission of the atom along opposing directions and to put a mirror in one of the directions, so that the light gets reflected and superposed with the beam going the other direction. One then finds an interference pattern when moving the mirror. This shows that there is interference between the beams going in two different directions. The emitter is a single barium ion. I do not think anyone did this using fibers as for single mode fibers the coupling efficiency is probably quite horrible.
 
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  • #7
Cthugha said:
Is there any specific reason why you choose quantum dots for this? At least self-organized QDs are usually lens-shaped and therefore inherently asymmetric. The symmetry properties are much better, e.g., for single ions in a Paul trap.

This is not exactly the geometry you mention, but I think this captures the spirit of what you are interested in:
https://www.nature.com/articles/35097017

J. Eschner et al., "Light interference from single atoms and their mirror images", Nature 413, 495 (2001). It is not on the ArXiv, but you might find free versions hosted by the authors on the internet. This is from Rainer Blatt's group and Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler was the postdoc supervising the experiment. What Ferdinand did was to investigate the emission of the atom along opposing directions and to put a mirror in one of the directions, so that the light gets reflected and superposed with the beam going the other direction. One then finds an interference pattern when moving the mirror. This shows that there is interference between the beams going in two different directions. The emitter is a single barium ion. I do not think anyone did this using fibers as for single mode fibers the coupling efficiency is probably quite horrible.
Thank you. This is it exactly. I didn't read it yet.
I suppose the radiation is suppressed as in cavity?
 

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