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arXiv:1801.09019 · Physical Review Letters

General Model of Photon-Pair Detection with an Image Sensor

Hugo Defienne, Matthew C. Reichert, Jason W. Fleischer

Published May 17, 2018• 83 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We develop an analytic model that relates intensity correlation measurements performed by an image sensor to the properties of photon pairs illuminating it. Experiments using an effective single-photon counting camera, a linear electron-multiplying charge-coupled device camera, and a standard CCD camera confirm the model. The results open the field of quantum optical sensing using conventional detectors.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.120.203604

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We develop an analytic model that relates intensity correlation measurements performed by an image sensor to the properties of photon pairs illuminating it. Experiments using an effective single-photon counting camera, a linear electron-multiplying charge-coupled device camera, and a standard CCD camera confirm the model. The results open the field of quantum optical sensing using conventional detectors.
Spontaneous downconversion is a versatile source for correlated biphotons that has been employed in many quantum sensing and imaging experiments. Spatially-resolved photon-counting detectors allow to access a large number of modes, posing the challenge of an accurate description of such systems. We propose a simple model to generate images as though acquired by a photon-counting camera, and allow to simulate and characterise the detection of quantum correlations. We derive quantitative parameters characteristic of the spatial correlations for a given experiment, comparing the images produced by our model to the frames acquired by an electron-multiplying CCD camera. Moreover we accurately predict the decreased detection of spatially correlated biphotons caused by introducing a variable amount of optical loss after the nonlinear crystal, even though the total number of detected events is kept constant, showing excellent agreement between model and experiment.
Classical light sources emit a randomly-timed stream of individual photons, the spatial distribution of which can be detected with a camera to form an image. Quantum light sources, based on parametric down conversion, emit photons as correlated photon-pairs. The spatial correlations between the photons enables imaging systems where the preferential selection of photon-pairs allows for enhancements in the noise performance over what is possible using classical light sources. However, until now the technical challenge of measuring, and correlating both photons has led to system complexity. Here we show that a camera capable of resolving the number of individual photons in each pixel of the detector array can be used to record an image formed from these photon-pair events and hence achieve a greater contrast than possible using a classical light source. We achieve an enhancement in the ratio of two-photon events compared to one-photon events using spatially correlated SPDC light compared to uncorrelated illumination by a LED. These results indicate the potential advantages of using photon counting cameras in quantum imaging schemes and these advantages will further increase as the technology is developed. Operating in photon sparse regimes such systems have potential applications in low-light microscopy and covert imaging.
In this thesis I discuss the experimental demonstration of quantum-enhanced imaging and sensing schemes able to surpass the performance of their classical counterparts. This is achieved by exploiting the spatial properties of quantum correlated biphotons. Over the next chapters I first discuss the production and detection of quantum correlated photons using a type-I nonlinear crystal and a single-photon sensitive electron-multiplying CCD camera. I then provide a simple yet powerful description of the spatially resolved detection of biphotons, allowing to accurately model and assess the performance of the quantum-enhanced schemes featured in this thesis. These consist of a shadow-sensing and an imaging scheme able to respectively beat the shot-noise-limit in the optical measurement of the position of a shadow and the diffraction limit in the full-field imaging of real-world objects. A combination of simulated and experimental results are used to investigate both the achieved and theoretically available quantum advantage. Optical losses and detector noise are found to limit the better-than-classical performance of the schemes, which rely on the ability to jointly detect an as high as possible number of spatially correlated biphotons.
Intensity correlation measurements form the basis of many experiments based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion. In the most common situation, two single-photon avalanche diodes and coincidence electronics are used in the detection of the photon pairs, and the coincidence count distributions are measured by making use of some scanning procedure. Here we analyze the measurement of intensity correlations using multielement detector arrays. By considering the detector parameters such as the detection and noise probabilities, we found that the mean number of detected photons that maximizes the visibility of the two-photon correlations is approximately equal to the mean number of noise events in the detector array. We provide expressions predicting the strength of the measured intensity correlations as a function of the detector parameters and on the mean number of detected photons. We experimentally test our predictions by measuring far-field intensity correlations of spontaneous parametric down-conversion with an electron multiplying charge-coupled device camera, finding excellent agreement with the theoretical analysis.
In this work we discuss topics such as the theory of photon detectors, showing its operation mode, characteristics and types. In addition, we also study the quantum detection theory, how photons interact with the detector's atoms, and how the process of single and coincidences counting mode works. We look into the theory of parametric down conversion in order to create a correlated photon source and a single photon source. We also discuss about ghost imaging theory and experiments, since it shows us in a very clear way a direct appplication for a single photons camera. I present the results obtained so far with the camera we have in our laboratory. We detected the photon's cones generated by the parametric down conversion type I and type II. We recorded interference patterns, multiple slit images, and amplitude masks images with few photons. We used the CCD for photon counting in an experiment where an image of an object is obtained through photons that have not interacted with the object, but is part of one of the beams in the stimulated parametric down conversion. One of the great motivators of working with a camera is performing quantum optics experiments where spatial patterns are detected. In this aspect a camera has a greater robustness than single photon APD since it allows us to observe the whole transverse profile of a beam simultaneously, something that is possible only with a set of detectors APDs.
To evidence multimode spatial entanglement of spontaneous down-conversion, detector arrays allow a full-field measurement, without any a priori selection of the paired photons. We show by comparing results of the recent literature that electron-multiplying CCD cameras allow, in the present state of technology, the detection of quantum correlations with the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), while intensified CCD cameras allow at best the identification of pairs. The SNR appears to be proportional to the square root of the number of coherence cells in each image, or Schmidt number. Then corrected estimates are derived for extended coherence cells and not-very-low and non-space-stationary photon fluxes. Finally, experimental measurements of the SNR confirm our model.