Geometrical optics in correlated imaging systems (5 pages)

A. Gatti, E. Brambilla

De-Zhong Cao, Jun Xiong, Kaige Wang

We discuss the geometrical optics of correlated imaging for two kinds of spatial correlations corresponding, respectively, to a classical thermal light source and a quantum two-photon entangled source. Due to the different features in the second-order spatial correlation, the two sources obey different imaging equations. The quantum entangled source behaves as a mirror, whereas the classical thermal source looks like a phase-conjugate mirror in the correlated imaging.

Qian Niu, Iacopo Carusotto, Anatoly B. Kuklov

O. M. Marchenko, Sergei A. Kazantsev, Laurentius Windholz

Yu Yan, Jiamin Li, Shuangping Han +5 more

T. B. Pittman, Dmitry Strekalov, Давид Николаевич Клышко +3 more

We report two-photon correlation experiments using spontaneous parametric down-conversion under a severe manipulation of the input pump field. Considering the case of passing the laser beam through a focusing lens before the down-conversion crystal, theoretical calculations and a series of imaging experiments demonstrate two-photon geometric optics effects. In particular, the imaging in coincidence counts of an aperture placed in one of the down-conversion beams is found to be the analog of a simple spherical mirror system, which displays a ``vacuum dispersion'' effect in that the object and image distances are wavelength weighted. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.