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arXiv · 1207.1713

Imaging using quantum noise properties of light

Jeremy B. Clark·Zhifan Zhou·Quentin Glorieux·Alberto M. Marino·Paul D. Lett
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Abstract

We show that it is possible to estimate the shape of an object by measuring only the fluctuations of a probing field, allowing us to expose the object to a minimal light intensity. This scheme, based on noise measurements through homodyne detection, is useful in the regime where the number of photons is low enough that direct detection with a photodiode is difficult but high enough such that photon counting is not an option. We generate a few-photon state of multi-spatial-mode vacuum-squeezed twin beams using four-wave mixing and direct one of these twin fields through a binary intensity mask whose shape is to be imaged. Exploiting either the classical fluctuations in a single beam or quantum correlations between the twin beams, we demonstrate that under some conditions quantum correlations can provide an enhancement in sensitivity when estimating the shape of the object.

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BibTeXRIS

Jeremy B. Clark, Zhifan Zhou, Quentin Glorieux, Alberto M. Marino, Paul D. Lett. 2012-07-06. Imaging using quantum noise properties of light. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.20.017050

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