title: Exotic looped trajectories of photons in three-slit interference.
abstract: The validity of the superposition principle and of Born's rule are well-accepted tenants of quantum mechanics. Surprisingly, it has been predicted that the intensity pattern formed in a three-slit experiment is seemingly in contradiction with the most conventional form of the superposition principle when exotic looped trajectories are taken into account. However, the probability of observing such paths is typically very small, thus rendering them extremely difficult to measure. Here we confirm the validity of Born's rule and present the first experimental observation of exotic trajectories as additional paths for the light by directly measuring their contribution to the formation of optical interference fringes. We accomplish this by enhancing the electromagnetic near-fields in the vicinity of the slits through the excitation of surface plasmons. This process increases the probability of occurrence of these exotic trajectories, demonstrating that they are related to the near-field component of the photon's wavefunction.
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
authors.forename: Omar S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Magaña-Loaiza
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Sciences, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon 64849, Mexico.|Department of Physics and Max Planck Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Israel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Leon
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mirhosseini
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Max Planck Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fickler
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Max Planck Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Akbar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Safari
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Staudtstr. 2 and Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, University of Erlangen, Staudtstr. 7B/2, Erlangen D-91058, Germany.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Mick
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McIntyre
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Max Planck Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.|Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Staudtstr. 2 and Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, University of Erlangen, Staudtstr. 7B/2, Erlangen D-91058, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Banzer
authors.affiliation: Quantum Information Science Group, MITRE, 200 Forrestal Rd. Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2150-0576
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rodenburg
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Max Planck Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.|Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Staudtstr. 2 and Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, University of Erlangen, Staudtstr. 7B/2, Erlangen D-91058, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leuchs
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.|Department of Physics and Max Planck Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Boyd