Eur. Phys. J. D 35, 561-565 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00201-y

Single-photon wavefront-splitting interference^*

An illustration of the light quantum in action

¹ Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire, ENS Cachan, UMR CNRS 8537, 94235 Cachan Cedex, France
² Key Laboratory of Optical and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P.R. China
³ Palais de la Découverte, avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 75008 Paris, France
⁴ Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique, UMR CNRS 8501, Centre scientifique d'Orsay, Bâtiment 503, 91403 Orsay Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ^a roch@physique.ens-cachan.fr

Received: 3 May 2005
Published online: 26 July 2005

Abstract

We present a new realization of the textbook experiment consisting in single-photon interference based on the pulsed, optically excited photoluminescence of a single colour centre in a diamond nanocrystal. Interferences are created by wavefront-splitting with a Fresnel's biprism and observed by registering the “single-photon clicks” with an intensified CCD camera. This imaging detector provides also a real-time movie of the build-up of the single-photon fringes. We perform a second experiment with two detectors sensitive to photons that follow either one or the other interference path. Evidence for single photon behaviour is then obtained from the absence of time coincidence between detections in these two paths.