An experiment to throw more light on light

Abstract

We propose an experiment in which "single photon states" are incident on a combination of two prisms placed opposite each other. When the gap between the prisms is larger than the wavelength, the incident "photon states" suffer total internal reflection inside the first prism (registered by counter 1). When the gap is shorter than the wavelength, there is a possibility of their tunneling across the gap (registered by counter 2). The two counters 1 and 2 clicking in perfect anticoincidence would show simultaneously sharp particle and wave characteristics, highlighting inadequacy of the complementarity principle in its usual form. Other possibilities of the outcome are not favoured by the formalism of quantum optics.