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arXiv:1303.3906 · Optics Express

Toward real-time quantum imaging with a single pixel camera

Benjamin J. Lawrie, Raphael C. Pooser

Published Mar 19, 2013• 41 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present a workbench for the study of real-time quantum imaging by measuring the frame-by-frame quantum noise reduction of multi-spatial-mode twin beams generated by four wave mixing in Rb vapor. Exploiting the multiple spatial modes of this squeezed light source, we utilize spatial light modulators to selectively pass macropixels of quantum correlated modes from each of the twin beams to a high quantum efficiency balanced detector. In low-light-level imaging applications, the ability to measure the quantum correlations between individual spatial modes and macropixels of spatial modes with a single pixel camera will facilitate compressive quantum imaging with sensitivity below the photon shot noise limit.

DOI
10.1364/oe.21.007549

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We present a workbench for the study of real-time quantum imaging by measuring the frame-by-frame quantum noise reduction of multi-spatial-mode twin beams generated by four wave mixing in Rb vapor. Exploiting the multiple spatial modes of this squeezed light source, we utilize spatial light modulators to selectively pass macropixels of quantum correlated modes from each of the twin beams to a high quantum efficiency balanced detector. In low-light-level imaging applications, the ability to measure the quantum correlations between individual spatial modes and macropixels of spatial modes with a single pixel camera will facilitate compressive quantum imaging with sensitivity below the photon shot noise limit.
Spatial quantum correlations in the transverse degree of freedom promise to enhance optical resolution, image detection, and quantum communications through parallel quantum information encoding. In particular, the ability to observe these spatial quantum correlations in a single shot will enable such enhancements in applications that require real-time imaging, such as particle tracking and in situ imaging of atomic systems. Here, we report on measurements in the far field that show spatial quantum correlations in single images of bright twin beams with 108{10}^{8}108 photons in a 1-$\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$ pulse using an electron-multiplying charge-coupled-device camera. A four-wave mixing process in hot rubidium atoms is used to generate narrowband, bright pulsed twin beams of light. Owing to momentum conservation in this process, the twin beams are momentum correlated, which leads to spatial quantum correlations in the far field. We show around 2 dB of spatial quantum noise reduction with respect to the shot-noise limit. The spatial squeezing is present over a large range of total number of photons in the pulsed twin beams.
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.
The observation of spatial quantum noise reduction, or spatial squeezing, with a large number of photons can lead to a significant advantage in quantum imaging and quantum metrology due to the scaling of the signal-to-noise ratio with the number of photons. Here we present a systematic study of the limiting factors that play a role on the measurement of spatial squeezing with an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) camera in the limit of bright quantum states of light generated with a four-wave mixing process in an atomic vapor cell. We detect a total number of photons per beam of the order 108{10}^{8}108 in $1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$ pulses, which corresponds to a photon flux per beam of the order of 1014{10}^{14}1014 photons per second. We then investigate the role of different parameters, such as cell temperature, pump power, laser detunings, scattered pump background noise, and timing sequences for the image acquisition with the EMCCD camera, on the level of spatial squeezing. We identify critical parameters to obtain an optimum squeezing level and demonstrate that for bright beams it is essential to acquire images at a rate fast enough to overcome the effect of classical technical noise.
Quantum technologies promise to overcome by far the limits of the classical schemes. However, the present challenge is to overpass the limits of proof of principle demonstrations to approach real applications. In this paper, we present an experiment which aims to bridge this gap in the field of quantum enhanced imaging. In particular, we realize a sub-shot noise wide field microscope based on spatially multi-mode non-classical photon number correlations in twin beams. The microscope produces real time images of 8000 pixels at full resolution, with noise reduced to the 80% of the shot noise level (for each pixel), hence able to image faint samples at low illumination level. The noise can be further reduced (less than 30% of the shot noise level) turning down the resolution. It demonstrates the best sensitivity per incident photon ever achieved in absorption microscopy.
Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRIM), Strada delle Cacce 91, 10135 Torino, Italy. E-mail:i.ruoberchera@inrim.it Quantum correlations of twin beams represent a resource of great importance for the developments of quantum technologies allowing unprecedented results in quantum information, metrology and quantum imaging. Focusing on the measurement of the photon numbers, spatial multimode correlations beyond the shot noise limit have been experimentally demonstrated by using parametric down conversion (PDC) and CCD camera (both at the single photon level and at higher photon flux) [1], and also with other interesting techniques [2]. One of their natural application is the quantum imaging of weak absorbing objects, showed in Fig.1, with sensitivity beyond the shot-noise-level [3]. The idea consists in measuring the intensity pattern on one branch of PDC, where the object has been inserted, and then subtracting the correlated noise pattern measured in the other branch that does not interact with the object. In our presentation we overview the sub-shot noise imaging protocol mentioned above and other applications where the spatial quantum correlation can give some advantages over the classical ones. As an example, we studied the signalto-noise ratio (SNR) of ghost imaging protocols with quantum and classical light [4]. We realized a ghost imaging experiment in the mesoscopic regime (one thousand of photon per pixel per shot), obtaining substantial quantum enhanced performances (see Fig.1). We also demonstrated that spatial quantum correlations provide the possibility for the absolute calibration of analog and/or photon number resolving detectors, providing the first absolute calibration (without any comparison with reference standards, neither optical source nor detector) of a scientific CCD camera [5]. In this first realization we already reached interesting uncertainty level. All these findings indicate that the control and detection of quantum spatial correlation is a rather mature field and other application to different sensing scenarios can be envisaged.
Electron-multiplying charge-coupled-device cameras (EMCCDs) have been used to observe quantum noise reductions in beams of light in the transverse spatial degree of freedom. For the quantum noise reduction in the temporal domain, 'bucket detectors,' usually composed of photodiodes with operational amplifiers, are used to register the intensity fluctuations in beams of light within the detectors' bandwidth. Here, we report on measurements of the temporal quantum noise reduction in bright twin beams using an EMCCD camera. The four-wave mixing process in an atomic rubidium vapor cell is used to generate the bright twin beams of light. We observe ∼ 25% of temporal quantum noise reduction with respect to the shot-noise limit in images captured by the EMCCD camera. The temporal images captured by our technique are potentially important in obtaining dynamical information on evolving systems.