Nonclassical and nonlocal effects in the interference of light

Abstract

Although we tend to think of optical interference as a classical wave phenomenon, recent experiments have revealed a number of effects that are not describable in classical terms. This is particularly true of interference effects involving the detection of a photon pair. We shall refer to them as fourth order interference, on the grounds that the joint probability density for the detection of one photon at r sub 1 at time t and another r sub 2 at time t is proportional to the fourth order correlation function of the field. This probability is readily measured when two photodetectors are positioned at r sub 1 and r sub 2 and the signals from the two detectors are fed to a coincidence counter that registers 'simultaneous' detections by the two detectors in coincidence. The topics covered include: fourth order interference measurements; the Franson experiment; and experimental test of the de Broglie guided wave theory.