Experimental demonstration of wave-particle duality relation based on coherence measure

Abstract: Wave-particle duality is a typical example of Bohr's complementarity principle that plays a significant role in quantum mechanics. Previous studies used the visibility of an interference pattern to quantify the wave property and used path information to quantify the particle property. However, coherence is the core and basis of the interference phenomenon. If we could use coherence to characterize the wave property, the understanding of wave-particle duality would be strengthened. A recent theoretical work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 160406 (2016)] found two relations between quantum coherence and path information. Here, we demonstrate the new measure of wave-particle duality based on two kinds of coherence measures quantitatively for the first time. The wave property, quantified by the coherence in the l1-norm measure and the relative entropy measure, can be obtained via tomography of the target state, which is encoded in the path degree of freedom of the photons. The particle property, quantified by the path information, can be obtained via the discrimination of detector states, which is encoded in the polarization degree of freedom of the photons. Our work may deepen people's understanding of coherence and provide a new perspective regarding wave-particle duality.