Undergraduate Laboratories Using Correlated Photons: Experiments on the Fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics

Innovative Laboratory Design 1 1 3 Advances in several technologies have created an educational opportunity for curricular innovation in physics. Experiments with correlated photons can be used in the upper-level physics curriculum to complement the teaching of an otherwise theoretical topic: quantum mechanics. Undergraduates can now recreate, on a tabletop setup, experiments with correlated photons that not too long ago were used in research to make dramatic demonstrations of fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. Here we present the results of a project to develop a new set of laboratories with correlated photons adapted to the undergraduate setting where affordability and simplicity are primary concerns.