- #1
kurt101
- 284
- 35
- TL;DR Summary
- I would like to understand how photon interference is affected by path differences.
Most sources I come across on the topic of photon interference focus on the phase differences, but neglect discussion on the wave amplitude. Wave amplitude diminishes with distance; a single photon's energy does not.
So in a double slit experiment with photons being emitted one at a time, if the path from the photon source to one of the slits is longer in time/distance than the path to the other slit, will the interference pattern be reduced compared to if the paths were equal time/distance but with the same phase?
Would the shorter path slit have a greater influence on the pattern on the screen? (presumably because it has a greater wave amplitude)
Primarily this is of interest to me because I want to think it should be simple to say whether a photon's wave and particle aspects are separate entities or not; answering the age old question is a photon a particle or a wave. I expect to get the answer it is not so simple, but hopefully I can come away with a better understanding on why.
So my second question on this: If you only look at the photons that could have reached the detector screen by the shorter path, which you could know if you had a periodic shutter at the photon source, would you see any interference?
So in a double slit experiment with photons being emitted one at a time, if the path from the photon source to one of the slits is longer in time/distance than the path to the other slit, will the interference pattern be reduced compared to if the paths were equal time/distance but with the same phase?
Would the shorter path slit have a greater influence on the pattern on the screen? (presumably because it has a greater wave amplitude)
Primarily this is of interest to me because I want to think it should be simple to say whether a photon's wave and particle aspects are separate entities or not; answering the age old question is a photon a particle or a wave. I expect to get the answer it is not so simple, but hopefully I can come away with a better understanding on why.
So my second question on this: If you only look at the photons that could have reached the detector screen by the shorter path, which you could know if you had a periodic shutter at the photon source, would you see any interference?