Tunneling

No such thing as single photons, either. All they do is to reduce the light intensity until the average time between events from the detecting device exceeds the lightspeed delay of the apparatus. They then declare that there can never be more than a single photon inside and marvel at the persistence of wave effects.

Light detectors are made of matter and the interaction of light and matter is quantized. But that doesn't imply that light is quantized by itself.

Jeroen Belleman

than is necessary for

Hi Jeroen

These do not exist?:

January 25, 2013, Researcher achieves breakthrough in building efficient single-photon detector:

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (2010, April 16). New detector counts photons with 99 percent efficiency. ScienceDaily:

Apr 18, 2012, New single-photon source could boost quantum cryptography:

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Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (2007, April 2). Life And Death Of A Photon 'Filmed' For The First Time. ScienceDaily:

Glenn

Yes, of course they exist. What they detect are not photons in the sense of light particles, but discrete charges, electrons, dislodged from the matter they are made of by the incident light waves. This occurs with a probability proportional to the power density of the local EM wave, provided its frequency is above a certain threshold, characteristic of the detector material. This is by no means proof that light itself is conveyed in discrete packets.

There exists no source of countable single photons at precisely defined instants. All they do is to attenuate the light of a picosecond laser by a sufficient amount to make the detector produce one or fewer events per laser pulse on average. An APD has huge gain. A sizable output pulse results from a single electron-hole pair. The event rate has Poisson statistics, convolved by the laser pulse shape.

Jeroen Belleman

Transistors:

Multivibrator:

precursors:

Principle:

Invention:

Two nickel surfaces in contact will make a low-barrier tunnel junction. Maybe a nickel cat's whisker?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Phase velocity vs. group velocity. There's an elementary theorem in relativity that if you have FTL anything, causality goes out the window.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

On 25/03/13 23.58, Phil Hobbs wrote: ...

Hi Phil

Please don't read this message right before you go to bed - it might give you nightmares ;-)

Reminds me of:

Basic Information Regarding Tin Whiskers:

Floating zinc whiskers strike at PC systems Beware the frabjous crystals

Anecdote: Tin Whiskers Growing on Internal Walls of Transistor Can (Vintage Radios):

Metal Whisker Photo Gallery:

Glenn

Hi Jeroen

Can you also explain this?:

Jul 18, 2011, Light propagates as if 'space is missing':

Glenn

On 26/03/13 00.01, Phil Hobbs wrote: ...

Hi Phil

Axiom of Causality is probably right ;-) :

Axiom of Causality:

Glenn

Can I use ebay as a supply chain?

There were a few US places that listed tunnel diodes with a 'request quote'. I should order some... Say can I make a tunnel diode 'go' at ~3.8GHz?

We get some RF npn power transistors from Russia, used in discharge lamp, I think ~$20 each, at only 10 units a year, not worth a redesign.

George H.

/notes/atomi...

Pretty much, electrons in an S state have a maximum at the origin, P and the other higher angular momentum states have a node there. (An electron in a p-state still has some probability to be in the nucleous, there's a small p-state hyperfine interaction. (for Rb ~100MHz, vs

George H.

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Hmm, we sell this single photon two slit apparatus. To confirm the single photon part we pull out the slits, (except for the source slit.)* factor in pmt efficiency and count pulses. There's some probability that there is more than one 'photon' at a time.. but it's small.

I didn't read the FTL paper, but certainly there's a defined propigation velocity in the barrier region. (group velocity less than c..I assume.)

George H.

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Really? Do I need a small contact area? (etched Nickel wire?) Are there no oxides involved? Are there magnetic field effects? (that could be cool.) (I've always wanted a piece of Nickel.) A few dollar tunnel diode might be better, making your own samples is always messy.

George H.

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les

Grin... Phase is such a slippery thing, always arriving before you expect it. (at least in filters)

George H.

There's an elementary theorem in

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biased

I don't see no negative resistance in figure 4.

It may be tricky to create a structure such that the phase of an EM wave in the optical frequency range is the same everywhere in a certain volume, but it's not impossible. The refractive index in such a volume would then be zero, but that does not imply the propagation speed of light in there is infinite! The EM energy takes a while to fill that space, generally *much* more than one light speed delay.

These things are generally lots of tiny coupled resonators. They could be dimensioned to have the phase evolve backwards, so you could even have a negative index of refraction! Of course, these effects only occur over a narrow frequency range, a fact that often goes conveniently unmentioned.

As often in modern physics, publications to the general public seek to evoke awe and wonder, but no understanding.

Jeroen Belleman

That device is deeply mysterious if you think of light as discrete packets, because it requires them to be in many places at once, while still ending up in one specific spot in the end.

If you think of light as a wave phenomenon, with only the detection process being discrete and probabilistic, it's crystal clear what is really going on.

What experiment would demonstrate unequivocally that light itself is conveyed by discrete photons?

Jeroen Belleman

A Geiger counter.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

hese

rd biased

Ahh, sorry I was looking for a current that is exponenetial with voltage... so a straight line on the Log/linear I-V plot of figure

1. (Glenn got all excited about negative resistance... but that was not my intent.)

George H.

ttdesign.com- Hide quoted text -

I agree! It is mysterious. But still one can count photons and see the interference pattern build up with time.

They do these "Heralded photon" experiements where parametric down conversion creates two entangled photons. Then with two single photon detectors you can see that a count in one channel 'predicts' a count in the second (time delayed) channel. But all the detection is still photons to electrons. And there is of course still some Quantum efficiency that is less than one, and dark counts etc...

George H.