Abstract

In a recent article, Jacobson et al.¹ have shown theoretically that the measured de Broglie wavelength of an object is dependent of its internal structure, A fourth-order Young interference experiment is done to demonstrate a practical way to measure the photonic de Broglie wavelength of a two-photon wave- packet. Light in the two-photon state generated collinearly in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion. By modifying the transverse field profile of the pump laser beam that generates the two-photon beam we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically² that it is possible to measure the de Broglie wavelength of the constituents parts of the wavepacket, the de Broglie wavelength of the two-photon wavepacket (biphoton) as a whole and an undefined intermediate de Broglie wavelength between the two cases.

© 1999 Optical Society of America