Scientists discover how a photon looks like

Words
135
Reading
1 min
Listen
Play
9y

The spatial structure of single photon, the smallest elementary particle of light, and any other form of electromagnetic radiation, has been rendered with the help of holograms.
This is a great step further in understanding and develop free-space quantum communication that will allow Tb/s data rates and quantum computers that will be so powerful compared to today's computers that they'll probably undermine the security surrounding most cryptocurrencies using Proof-of-Work systems.

The team of Polish physicists at the University of Warsaw: Radosław Chrapkiewicz, Michał Jachura, Konrad Banaszek & Wojciech Wasilewski, were able to create an hologram of a single photon by firing two light beams at a beamsplitter. The resulting image looks a like a cross, just like the wave function predicted from Schrödinger’s equation.

Quantum interference of two spatially structured photons, schematic experimental setup:

Source: http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v10/n9/full/nphoton.2016.129.html

Scientists discover how a photon looks like | Ecency