Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Thompson in an ATM thread
You cannot detect a single photon as a wave. Solid state
detectors detect photons as particles (see George Rieke's book
Detection of Light: From the Ultraviolet to the Submillimeter,
an excellent review of the topic). You detect waves with antennae,
as in radio & radar, but you cannot distinguish one photon from
another with such technology. You either detect continuous waves,
or discrete photons, but you will never (and can never) detect an
individual photon as a wave. That's what the infamous wave-particle
duality is all about. You get whichever one you look for. |
Can the wavelength of an individual photon be measured (with a
major uncertainty) from the angle of its reflection or refraction
by an optical diffraction grating? The large uncertainty comes
primarily from the fact that photons emerging from the grating
have a statistical distribution that peaks at a specific angle,
but each individual photon can emerge at any angle.
Is that correct? If it is correct, does it have any utility?
-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
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