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A Mach-Zehnder Interferometer for a Two-Photon Wave Packet

Luiz Carlos Ryff·P. H. Souto Ribeiro
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Abstract

We propose an experiment that permits observation of the de Broglie two-photon wave packet behavior for a pair of photons, using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. It is based on the use of pulsed lasers to generate pairs of photons via spontaneous parametric down-conversion and the post-selection of events. It differs from previous realizations by the use of a third time-correlated photon to engineer the state of the photons. The same technique can give us which-path information via an ``interaction-free'' experiment and can be used in other experiments on the foundations of quantum mechanics related to wave-particle duality and to nonlocality.

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Luiz Carlos Ryff, P. H. Souto Ribeiro. 2000-10-05. A Mach-Zehnder Interferometer for a Two-Photon Wave Packet. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.63.023801

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