Assignment of PH3134

Name- Ashif Ali

Roll no - 20256710
Division - MS in Quantum Technology
Year - 2025-2027
Q.1) What is photon and how it’s sometimes wave and sometimes
particle? Is there any way to observe it without changing it’s state?

Optics is all about light matter interaction. To get the full view of this course one should know
what light is and what is it made of ? This particular question is not only mine, its actually one
of the most fundamental questions in both optics and Quantum mechanics. I find this question
interesting because I always wonder How in double slit experiment the randomness of ‘a
photon detected at the screen’ always leads us to a very certain and predicted result ie.
‘Interference Pattern’. If there is some way to observe it directly or indirectly without changing
the state then we would probably be able to know about photons as well as the experiment.

Only the wave nature or only the particle nature can’t describe double slit experiment. If we
consider only the wave nature the intensity of the interference should decrease with the
decrement of intensity of photon but it doesn’t happen. If we consider only particle nature, we
observe that each photon produces a localized impact on screen and not a very weak
interference pattern during very short period of time so that very few photons can reach the
screen. The question is so fundamental that revels us common-sense view is not always right.
It forces us to accept that reality exists as a realm of possibilities until an interaction forces it
into a define state. To understand LASERS or any photonic device we must have the knowledge
about the photon. Asking about the possibilities of measuring a quantum object like photon
without changing its state is important in the filed Quantum Computing where controlling a
quantum system and read information from it without disrupting much is needed.

To understand photon, we need quantum description of nature which is itself a probabilistic

description and hard to digest. Also, there might be connection between the uncertainty
principle and the measurement of photon at slits. Photon is a fundamental quantum entity that
we don’t have a perfect analogy for in our everyday life. When unobserved it behaves as a
wave, when observed behaves like a particle. The measurement of photon without changing its
state can be done using the technic called ‘Weak Measurement’ only a tiny amount of
information can be obtained from one such experiment and by doing it large number if time
one can retrieve the statistical behaviour of photons without collapsing the wave function.
There is another thought experiment ‘Elitzur-Vaidman bomb tester’ which explains interaction
free measurement.

Sources :
1. Cohen-Tannoudji, C., Diu, B., & Laloë, F. (1977). Quantum Mechanics (Vol. 1). John Wiley &
Sons.
2. Feynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B., & Sands, M. L. (1965). The Feynman Lectures on Physics:
Quantum Mechanics (Vol. 3).
3. Atomic "bomb testing": the Elitzur-Vaidman experiment violates the Leggett-Garg inequality
4. Duck, I., Stevenson, P. M., & Sudarshan, E. C. G. (1989). The Sense in Which a “Weak
Measurement” of a Spin 1/2 Particle’s Spin Component Yields a Value 100. Physical Review
D, 40(6), 2112–2117. [Link]
Q.2) Light has Electric Field and Magnetic Field. Can we Disturb
those fields by using external Electric or Magnetic Field and bend
light?
This is the question that suddenly came into my mind at the time of lecture and I found no
discussions about this in any book, maybe it’s stupid and very certain. This question allows me
to rethink what magnetic and Electric field is and how they interact with another field. Its
natural to assume that field should interact with other fields, yet in vacuum, they don’t. The
answer reveals the elegance of superposition principle and highlights the difference between a
chargeless photon and a charged particle like electron.

The significance of this question is in both optics and electromagnetism. The Property for
which light beam pass through each other and through static filed without scattering is known
as linearity, this is why we can receive clear radio signals and see distant stars without being
distorted by cosmic magnetic fields. This question also allows us to explore where this linearity
doesn’t hold like in Non-Linear Optics with intense light interacts with matter and Quantum
Electrodynamics which predicts that under extreme conditions light can interact with itself.

One can answer this question by using Maxwell’s Equations which says in vacuum all classical
electromagnetism is linear and this this linearity gives rises to superposition principle. This
principle says that the total Electric or Magnetic Field in a region is simply the vector sum of
individual fields present.
Etotal = Elight wave + Eexternal field
The light wave and the external filed are both the solutions of the Maxwell’s Equations, and
their sum is also valid solution. The light continues on its path as if the external filed wasn’t
there.

In some particular cases lights bend it’s path ie. in Refraction light filed interact with the charge
in a material medium like glass or water, causing it’s path to bend. Under the influence of
massive object gravity plays a role bending the fabric of spacetime and light follows the
curvature.

Also,there is some predictions and observations in quantum physics where at very high
magnetic field strength like those near a magnetar, magnetic field could make the vacuum itself
behave like a medium, which could then ever so slightly bend light. But for all practical
purposes, this effect is negligible.

Sources :
1. Griffiths, D. J. (2017). Introduction to Electrodynamics. Cambridge University Press.
2. Heisenberg, W., & Euler, H. (1936). "Folgerungen aus der Diracschen Theorie des Positrons"
[Consequences of Dirac's Theory of the Positron]. Zeitschrift für Physik, 98(11-12), 714–732.
3. Mignani, R. P., et al. (2017). "Evidence for vacuum birefringence from the first optical-
polarimetry measurement of the isolated neutron star RX J1856.5-3754". Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society, 465(1), 492–500.
Q.3) Consider a TEM plane wave traveling in a vacuum that is
incident on a hypothetical, non-magnetic dielectric medium where
the electric susceptibility is exactly -1. what would happen to the
wave as it attempts to enter this medium?

This question is interesting to me because susceptibility of -1 describe a medium whose induce

polarization perfectly cancels the electric filed displacement, which occurs in vacuum. The
susceptibility -1 is the critical threshold where a material transitions from being a transparent
dielectric to a perfect metal or plasma. It also raises the question ie. what does it mean for light
to enter a medium that has, in a sense, "zero" electrical permittivity?

The significance lies in understanding the fundamental origin of reflectivity in metals and
plasma. Susceptibility = -1 which implies a relative permittivity of zero, is the boundary
condition that explains why metals are opaque and shiny at optical frequencies. The question
opens door to the filed Plasmonics and Metamaterials where material are engineered to have
specific, often negative, permittivity values to control light in many different ways.

One can address this question by applying the relations between refractive index and
susceptibility.

The refractive index (n) is defined in terms of the susceptibility (χ) as: n= sqrt(1+χ)
If χ=−1, the refractive index becomes n=1−1=0.
The impedance of the medium (η) is related to the impedance of free space (ηo) and the
refractive index (n) by: η=ηo/n. If n=0, the impedance of the medium becomes infinite.
When the light wave traveling in a vacuum (with finite impedance ηo≈377Ω) hits the boundary
of the medium with infinite impedance, there is a total impedance mismatch. This condition
forces the wave to be perfectly reflected. No energy can propagate into the medium. This is
analogous to the boundary condition at a perfect conductor, where the tangential component of
the electric field must be zero. An incoming and perfectly reflected wave create a standing
wave where the field at the boundary is always zero, satisfying the condition.

Sources:
1. Saleh, B.E.A., & Teich, M.C. (Year). Fundamentals of Photonics (Edition). John Wiley &
Sons. Example: Saleh, B.E.A., & Teich, M.C. (2019). Fundamentals of Photonics, 2
Volume Set, 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons.
2. Silveirinha, M. G., & Engheta, N. (2006). "Tunneling of Electromagnetic Energy Through
Subwavelength Channels and Bends Using Epsilon-Near-Zero Media". Physical Review
Letters, 97(15), 157403.
3. Liberal, I., & Engheta, N. (2017). "Near-zero refractive index photonics". Nature
Photonics, 11, 149–158.
Q.4) If we could hypothetically create a perfect "notch" in a
material's spectrum completely removing a single, strong
absorption resonance in the ultraviolet, what would happen to the
material's refractive index in the entirely transparent visible
region, far from the notch, and what does this "non-local"
connection in frequency imply about the principle of causality in
light-matter interactions?
The question is interesting to me because it probes the non-intuitive consequences of causality
in the physical world. It shows us that a material’s property is not isolated point by point in the
frequency spectrum. Also, it illustrates that a material’s response to a light wave is holistic
property, which links all frequencies together through the fundamental principle that an effect
cannot precede its cause.
The Kramers-Kronig relations is a powerful predictive tool which is used practically to
determine the complete optical measurement of a material from an incomplete set of
measurements. For instance, by measuring a material's absorption spectrum over a broad range
of frequencies, which is often experimentally easier, one can use the Kramers-Kronig relations
to calculate its refractive index in a region where it's difficult to measure directly. This question
highlights the deep, predictive power that causality grants us.

This question can be answered intuitively by using Kramers-Kronig relation:

The refractive index in the visible region is determined by the real part of the susceptibility,
χ′(ν).
The Kramers-Kronig relation for χ′(ν) is an integral of the imaginary part, χ′′(ν) (which
represents absorption), over all frequencies:
Removing a strong absorption resonance in the
UV means removing a large, positive peak from
the integrand χ′′(s) at a high frequency.
Because this peak contributes to the integral for all values of ν, its removal would lower the
value of the refractive index in the entire visible spectrum.

This "non-local" connection in frequency is the mathematical signature of causality. The fact
that a material's polarization at time t can only depend on the electric field at times t' ≤ t
requires, in the frequency domain, that the real and imaginary parts of its response be linked
by this integral relationship. Changing the absorption anywhere changes the refractive index
everywhere.

Sources:
1. Saleh, B.E.A., & Teich, M.C. (Year). Fundamentals of Photonics (Edition). John Wiley &
Sons. Example: Saleh, B.E.A., & Teich, M.C. (2019). Fundamentals of Photonics, 2
Volume Set, 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons.
2. Zangwill, A. (2013). Modern Electrodynamics. Cambridge University Press, ch-15.
3. O'Donnell, K. A. (2012). "The Kramers-Kronig relations in optical materials-a teaching
review". SPIE Proceedings, 8491.