Can we get any better information about the nature of light by comparing radio and light wave detection processes?

Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri; Peter Poulos

doi:10.1117/12.740177

31 August 2007 Can we get any better information about the nature of light by comparing radio and light wave detection processes?

Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri, Peter Poulos

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6664, The Nature of Light: What Are Photons?; 666405 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.740177
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Comparing the radio and the light wave detection processes, this paper clarifies that what we normally call "interference" of EM waves, is actually the summation of the field induced signals carried out by the detectors. We have also presented a generalized definition of the superposition effects as measured (SEM) due to multiple physical steps behind any detection process. Thus the manipulation of the various physical properties of the detectors to various parameters of the EM waves can yield different "interference" effects for the same set of superposed waves. If EM waves interfered by themselves, such manipulation would not have been possible. We also give simple examples of visibility degradations due to rotation of the states of polarization and underscore that such degradation should not be assigned to degradation of coherence properties of the EM waves. It is due to the change in the stimulating amplitude, reduced by Malus'cosθ law, which is accessible to the uniaxial dipole like response of the detecting molecules.

Citation Download Citation

Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri and Peter Poulos "Can we get any better information about the nature of light by comparing radio and light wave detection processes?", Proc. SPIE 6664, The Nature of Light: What Are Photons?, 666405 (31 August 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.740177

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