Biphoton Interference

James Martin

Advisor: Dr. Enrique Galvez

This project is designed to exploit the wave-particle duality of light. Using a BBO crystal, collinear pairs of down-converted photons are sent through a Michelson Interferometer. In the creation of these photons, both energy and momentum must be conserved. The Michelson Interferometer has arms of indistinguishable lengths, with path differences much larger than the  coherence length of the light field, and therefore, we must have two identical photons pass through the interferometer in order for interference to be observable. By detecting coincidences between our two detectors, which are Avalanche Photodiodes, we can insure that the two photons interfere with each other. Observing an interference pattern with these coincidences clearly demonstrates the   non-classical nature of the  photons.