Experimental investigation of wave-particle duality relations in asymmetric beam interference

Abstract

Wave-particle duality relations are fundamental for quantum physics. Previous experimental studies of duality relations mainly focus on the quadratic relation D2 + V2 ≤ 1, based on symmetric beam interference, while a linear form of the duality relation, predicated earlier theoretically, has never been experimentally tested. In addition, the difference between the quadratic form and the linear form has not been explored yet. In this work, with a designed asymmetric beam interference and by utilizing the polarization degree of freedom of the photon as a which-way detector, we experimentally confirm both forms of the duality relations. The results show that more path information is obtained in the quadratic case. Our findings reveal the difference between the two duality relations and have fundamental implications in better understanding these important duality relations.