Open AccessTracing the trajectory of photons through Fourier spectrum
Author(s) -
Zhao-Qin Wu,
Hui Cao,
Jiehui Huang,
Li-Yun Hu,
Xue-Xiang Xu,
Haoliang Zhang,
ShiYao Zhu
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.23.010032
Subject(s) - optics , fourier transform , physics , photon , figuring , trajectory , beam (structure) , amplitude , ray tracing (physics) , interferometry , light beam , centroid , fourier analysis , mathematics , geometry , quantum mechanics , astronomy
By slightly vibrating the mirrors in an interferometer at different frequencies, the photons' trajectory information is stored in the light beam. To read out this information, we record the centroid location of the intensity distribution of output beam and Fourier analyze its time evolution. It is shown that every vibrating mirror contributes a peak in the Fourier spectrum. In other words, we can reveal the trajectory of the photons by figuring out the vibrating mirrors which ever interact with the light beam based on the Fourier spectrum. This techniques is not limited by the vibration amplitude of the mirrors.