Nowadays the most intriguing features of wave-particle complementarity of single-photons are exemplified by the famous Wheeler’s delayed-choice experiment with linear optics, nuclear magnetic resonance, and integrated photonic device systems in the optical platform. Until now, the delayed-choice experiments are demonstrated by either massless photons or massive particles, such as atoms, however, there is no report demonstrating Wheeler’s ideas in a hybrid system which consists of photons and atoms simultaneously. Here, we demonstrate a Wheeler’s delayed-choice experiment in an interface of light and atomic memory, in which the cold atomic memory makes the heralded single-photon divided into a superposition of atomic collective excitation and leaked pulse, thus acting as memory-based beam-splitters. We observe the intermediate states between particle and wave behavior by changing the relative proportion of the quantum random number generator, the second memory efficiency, and the relative storage time of two memories. The reported results confirm Bohr’s view that it makes no sense to illustrate the wave-like or particle-like behavior of light and matter before the measurement happens, and are helpful for improving our comprehension of the complementarity principle under the interface of light-atom interaction.

如今，单光子的波粒互补性最吸引人的特征是著名的惠勒（Wheeler）的延迟选择实验，其中包括线性光学，核磁共振和光学平台中集成的光子器件系统。直到现在，延迟选择实验还是通过无质量的光子或诸如原子之类的大质量粒子来证明的，但是，尚无报道证明惠勒在由光子和原子同时组成的混合系统中的想法。在这里，我们在光和原子记忆的界面中演示了惠勒的延迟选择实验，其中冷原子记忆将预示的单光子分成原子集体激发和泄漏脉冲的叠加，从而充当基于记忆的光束分割器。通过改变量子随机数发生器的相对比例，第二存储效率和两个存储器的相对存储时间，我们观察了粒子和波行为之间的中间状态。报道的结果证实了玻尔的观点，即在测量发生之前说明光和物质的波状或粒子状行为是没有意义的，并且有助于提高我们对光-原子相互作用界面下的互补原理的理解。 。