Simulation of quantum delayed-choice experiment through a single shot

Abstract

A fundamental feature of micro objects is the wave-particle duality which is addressed by Bohr’s complementarity principle. To observe the wave and particle behaviours, quantum delayed-choice experiments based on linear optics have been realized at the single-photon level. Since they were performed by using a single photon as the input, repeating measurements were required in order to obtain different experimental data and adjusting experimental parameters was necessary prior to each of measurements. Different from the previous works, we here realize a simulation of quantum delayed-choice experiment through a single shot, which employs a classical intense light beam as the input instead of a single photon. Experimentally, we demonstrate the trade-off between distinguishability and visibility of photons in a two-arm interferometer in an intuitive way by utilizing the finite beam profile of the light. We observe the morphing between wave and particle natures of photons via a single shot of a charged-coupled-device camera. Since the image is captured within the exposure time which is several milliseconds, the phase fluctuation is negligible, and therefore our experimental setup is robust against the noise. This work provides a simple and new route to inspect quantum duality, which does not require adjusting experimental parameters frequently and only needs performing measurement once.