The Shape of a Single Photon

 

Scientists have released a new study in Physical Review Letters. Research from the University of Birmingham suggests that scientists for the first time can observe the precise shape of a single photon. The article explains in explicit detail just how individual particles of light are emitted by atoms or molecules. 

Scientists determined the possibility for light to exist, propagate and travel through its environment. The theory is incredibly difficult to model and it is a challenge that researchers have been working on for decades.

The scientists at Birmingham created a model that describes interactions between the photon and the emitter. They also researched how the energy from the interaction travels into the distant field.

Most importantly, the Birmingham team were able to calculate a vision of the photon itself.

Dr. Benjamin Yuen is first author of the study. He is from the University's School of Physics. He explains, "Our calculations enabled us to convert a seemingly insolvable problem into something that can be computed. And, almost as a bi-product of the model, we were able to produce this image of a photon, something that hasn't been seen before in physics."

Professor Angela Demetriadou is from the University of Birmingham. She is co-author of this paper. She reports, "The geometry and optical properties of the environment has profound consequences for how photons are emitted, including defining the photons' shape, color and even how likely it is to exist."

Dr Yuen summarizes, "This work helps us to increase our understanding of the energy exchange between light and matter, and secondly to better understand how light radiates into its nearly and distant surroundings. Lots of this information had previously been thought of as just 'noise' but there's so much information within it that we can now make sense of, and make use of. By understanding this, we set the foundations to be able to engineer light-matter interactions for future applications, such as better sensors, improved photovoltaic energy cells, or quantum computing."