Eur. Phys. J. D 54, 723-728 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2009-00207-5

A proposal to measure the Rabi oscillations in the retinal rod cells

¹ Department of Physics, University of Milan, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
² Department of Information Technologies, University of Milan, via Bramante 65, 26013 Crema, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a Giuliano.Strini@mi.infn.it

Received: 4 April 2008
Revised: 2 February 2009
Published online: 24 July 2009

Abstract

Starting from the assumption that rod cells are sensitive to single photons, we propose a method to verify the existence of a quantum superposition in the retina, observing the Rabi oscillations in the quantum interaction of a coherent laser light with the rod cells. The computer simulation shows that the oscillations visibility is a robust parameter, so that it would be possible to observe the fringes also in presence of strong decoherence. The feasibility of the experiment is ensured by the new MEA (microelectrode array) technology, that allows to record the transretinal voltage change of a single retinal segment.