If I throw only one photon at the slits in Young's double slit experiment, can I get the interface pattern?
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Well, you would get an dot on the screen. But should you throw a large number of photons at double slit but only one at the time - the answer is yes, you would get a perfect interference pattern just as you would if you had throwed them together. As a matter of a fact, this experiment was done some time ago, when I get home, I'll get you reference. – Stipe Galić Aug 11 '17 at 10:31
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When light interacts with matter, it does so in a quantized way (the photons). This means that a single photon can only create one dot on the photodetector, which is not an interference pattern.
What you do get is that the probability distribution of where the single photon creates the dot on the detector has the form of an interference pattern. But this is of course not visible from a single photon hitting the detector. To see the pattern, you would have to repeat your single-photon experiment many times, then the number of photons in a given area is proportional to the integrated probability over that area.
noah
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Yes you will nd that's what conforms the wave nature of photon. Later on you will get a probability distribution(wave) of it.
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The question asks for the event when a single photon in passed through the slit. How will you see the interference pattern in this case ? – Mitchell Aug 11 '17 at 11:13