Undergrad Can a single photon be reflected by a mirror?

[Ebi Rogha]

TL;DR

I understand mirrors absorb a small energy portion of the light and reflect most of it. What happens if we shoot a single photon to a mirror? Would it be reflected?

If the answer is Yes, then I would ask, if the mirror absorbs a portion of the energy of the photon, so the photon should simply stop existing because we cannot have a smaller package of light than a photon.

If the answer is No, then I would ask why a beam of light (which is made of a big number of photons) behaves differently.

 

[Lord Jestocost]

Summary:: I understand mirrors absorb a small energy portion of the light and reflect most of it. What happens if we shoot a single photon to a mirror? Would it be reflected?

If you shoot single photons to a mirror: Statistically, some will be reflected, some will be transmitted through the mirror medium and some will be absorbed by the mirror medium.

 

[PeroK]

Summary:: I understand mirrors absorb a small energy portion of the light and reflect most of it. What happens if we shoot a single photon to a mirror? Would it be reflected?

If the answer is Yes, then I would ask, if the mirror absorbs a portion of the energy of the photon, so the photon should simply stop existing because we cannot have a smaller package of light than a photon.

If the answer is No, then I would ask why a beam of light (which is made of a big number of photons) behaves differently.

A single photon is reflected or absorbed according to certain probabilities (as with everything in QM). In a beam of photons, some are reflected and some are absorbed.

 

[Dale]

What happens if we shoot a single photon to a mirror? Would it be reflected?

Maybe. There is a chance that it would and a chance that it wouldn’t. That chance (not coincidentally) is equal to the percentage of light that is reflected classically.