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arXiv:1907.09370 · Science Advances

Imaging through noise with quantum illumination

T. Gregory, Paul‐Antoine Moreau, E. Toninelli, M. J. Padgett

Published Feb 7, 2020• 189 citations
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Abstract

The contrast of an image can be degraded by the presence of background light and sensor noise. To overcome this degradation, quantum illumination protocols have been theorized that exploit the spatial correlations between photon pairs. Here, we demonstrate the first full-field imaging system using quantum illumination by an enhanced detection protocol. With our current technology, we achieve a rejection of background and stray light of up to 5.8 and also report an image contrast improvement up to a factor of 11, which is resilient to both environmental noise and transmission losses. The quantum illumination protocol differs from usual quantum schemes in that the advantage is maintained even in the presence of noise and loss. Our approach may enable laboratory-based quantum imaging to be applied to real-world applications where the suppression of background light and noise is important, such as imaging under low photon flux and quantum LIDAR.

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.aay2652

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The contrast of an image can be degraded by the presence of background light and sensor noise. To overcome this degradation, quantum illumination protocols have been theorized that exploit the spatial correlations between photon pairs. Here, we demonstrate the first full-field imaging system using quantum illumination by an enhanced detection protocol. With our current technology, we achieve a rejection of background and stray light of up to 5.8 and also report an image contrast improvement up to a factor of 11, which is resilient to both environmental noise and transmission losses. The quantum illumination protocol differs from usual quantum schemes in that the advantage is maintained even in the presence of noise and loss. Our approach may enable laboratory-based quantum imaging to be applied to real-world applications where the suppression of background light and noise is important, such as imaging under low photon flux and quantum LIDAR.
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We use entangled photons as the light source in a normal microscope. Using this quantum illumination improves both the resolution and noise rejection in the image. The resolution of any classical imaging system is limited by the diffraction created by the finite size of the imaging lens. By using a light source that emits pairs of entangled photons and carefully controlling a camera that is capable of detecting single photons it is possible to observe these photons arriving two-by-two. Applying camera analysis software to log only these two-by-two events one can form an image from the mid-point (bisector) of each of these pair events. The image formed from the sum of all these bisectors has an improved resolution that surpasses the classical limit. Another advantage of using a quantum illumination is that it allows the two-by-two events from entangled photon pairs to be distinguished from background (classical) light and sensor noise. When processed in this way the resulting image is free of camera noise and any background light may be eliminated. The use of a quantum illumination protocol such as that used here results in the elimination of background light and therefore allows the development of the optical equivalent of quantum radar – a quantum enhanced LIDAR scheme. Using quantum illumination, combined with commercially available cameras that are sensitive to single photons creates a new approach to super-resolution and low noise microscopy. Imaging through noise with quantum illumination, T Gregory, P-A Moreau, E Toninelli, and M J Padgett, Science Advances 6, eaay2652 (2020) Resolution-enhanced quantum imaging by centroid estimation of biphotons, E Toninelli, P-A Moreau, T Gregory, A Mihalyi, M Edgar, N Radwell, and M J Padgett, Optica 6, 347-353 (2019)
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