Young's interference experiment: Past, present, and future

Greg Gbur; Taco D. Visser

doi:10.1016/bs.po.2022.01.003

Young's interference experiment: Past, present, and future

Greg Gbur, Taco D. Visser

Quantum Metrology & Laser Applications

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The celebrated experiment of Thomas Young has had a tremendous historical influence by revealing not only the wave character of light, but also by demonstrating the wave-particle duality that was suggested by de Broglie. In addition, the foundations of coherence theory are based on observable quantities that can be measured in a two-pinhole setup. Remarkably, even after two centuries, the experiment remains strikingly relevant. In recent years it has been used to elucidate the role of surface plasmon polaritons in optical transmission and their influence on spatial coherence. Furthermore, a multipinhole configuration was used to illustrate the connections between various types of field patterns that are the subject of singular optics. Also, the setup continues to provide new insight into the interrelation between entanglement, duality, and nonclassical paths. In this review we discuss the history and the recent applications of Young's experiment and its various incarnations. A closely related form of wavefront division and recombination, namely the Mach–Zehnder interferometer, also figures prominently in our tale.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Progress in Optics
Editors	Taco D. Visser
Publisher	Elsevier B.V.
Pages	275-343
Number of pages	69
ISBN (Print)	9780323989053
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.po.2022.01.003
Publication status	Published - 2022

Publication series

Name	Progress in Optics
Volume	67
ISSN (Print)	0079-6638

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We wish to thank Dr. Hugo Schouten, Prof. Joe Eberly, Prof. Dorinda Outram, Prof. Ari Friberg, Prof. Pang Xiaoyan, and the late Prof. Emil Wolf for the many discussions that have helped shape our understanding.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Funding

We wish to thank Dr. Hugo Schouten, Prof. Joe Eberly, Prof. Dorinda Outram, Prof. Ari Friberg, Prof. Pang Xiaoyan, and the late Prof. Emil Wolf for the many discussions that have helped shape our understanding.

Keywords

Coherence
de Broglie waves
Entanglement
Interference
Plasmonics
Young's experiment

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10.1016/bs.po.2022.01.003

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KW - Plasmonics

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Young's interference experiment: Past, present, and future

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Keywords

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