“The wave nature of the photon could be extracted as a visibility of the interference pattern,” explains Tai Hyun Yoon, a physicist at IBS and a co-author of the study. Corroborating theoretical ...

More information: Qing-Feng Xue et al, Single- and two-photon wave-particle superpositions: Theory and experiment, Physical Review A (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.108.022223.

The wave is a wave of probability, because the experiment is set up so the scientists don’t know which of the two slits any individual photon will pass through.

The team used an interferometer to split a photon wave function down two possible paths before meeting again. On each path, the team placed glass plates to change the polarization of light, ...

In a sense, then, a photon or any other quantum object acts like both a particle and a wave. This ‘wave–particle duality’ embodies many of the central conceptual mysteries of quantum ...

The first direct visualization of the shape of a photon has been created. These particles of light are impossible to photograph, but UK physicists have now calculated their wave function to ...

But if the photon travels down the corridor without the bomb, something weird happens: Its wave function, in traveling down both corridors, is cut short in one by the bomb. As it's not quite a ...

Optical biosensors use light waves as a probe to detect molecules, and are essential for precise medical diagnostics, ...

But if the photon travels down the corridor without the bomb, something weird happens: Its wave function, in traveling down both corridors, is cut short in one by the bomb. As it’s not quite a ...