The study by the team headed by Professor Ma Xiaosong clearly showed that light not just occurs in the particle or wave states but also in a quantum superposition of the two.
The experiment is the first quantum delayed-choice under stringent Einstein locality conditions, which necessitated equipment situated in two separate labs located 141 m apart to be connected.
“By carefully arranging the location and timing of the experimental setup, we achieved the required relativistic separations between relevant events,” stated Wang Kai, a PhD student in Ma’s team and the study first author.
Ma reported that the experiment revealed that it is possible to tune the characteristics of this quantum wave-particle superposition, thereby paving the way for new experimental capability in quantum technologies.