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Physical Review A

Dark quantum imaging with fermions

Shu Gan, De-Zhong Cao, Kaige Wang

Published Oct 12, 2009• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum imaging with a thermal source of fermions is analyzed and compared with that of bosons. Due to the Pauli exclusive principle and Fermi-Dirac statistics, fermions can manifest antibunching effects in the second-order correlation function. Our analysis finds that quantum imaging with free fermions can construct dark patterns against a bright intensity background. This distinguishing feature highlights the quantum nature of fermions without any classical analog. A scheme of magnifying ghost imaging of an electron microscope is also proposed.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.80.043809

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Quantum imaging with a thermal source of fermions is analyzed and compared with that of bosons. Due to the Pauli exclusive principle and Fermi-Dirac statistics, fermions can manifest antibunching effects in the second-order correlation function. Our analysis finds that quantum imaging with free fermions can construct dark patterns against a bright intensity background. This distinguishing feature highlights the quantum nature of fermions without any classical analog. A scheme of magnifying ghost imaging of an electron microscope is also proposed.
Ghost imaging with thermal fermions is calculated via two-particle interference based on the superposition principle for different alternatives in Feynman's path integral theory. It is found that ghost imaging with fully polarized thermal fermions can be simulated by ghost imaging with fully polarized thermal bosons and classical particles. Photons in pseudothermal light are employed to experimentally study fermionic ghost imaging. Ghost imaging with thermal bosons and fermions is discussed based on the point-to-point (spot) correlation between the object and image planes. The employed method offers an efficient guidance for future ghost imaging with real thermal fermions, which may also be generalized to study other second-order interference phenomena with fermions.
We theoretically study the high-order correlation functions of chaotic bosons and fermions. Based on the different parity of the Stirling number, the products of the first-order correlation functions are well classified and employed to represent the high-order correlation function. The correlation of bosons conduces a bunching effect, which will be enhanced as order NNN increases. Different from bosons, the anticommutation relation of fermions leads to the parity of the Stirling number, which thereby results in a mixture of bunching and antibunching behaviors in high-order correlation. By further investigating third-order ghost diffraction and ghost imaging, the differences between the high-order correlations of bosons and fermions are discussed in detail. A larger NNN will dramatically improve the ghost image quality for bosons, but a good strategy should be carefully chosen for the fermionic ghost imaging process due to its complex correlation components.
We investigate the nature of correlations in Gaussian light sources used for ghost imaging. We adopt methods from quantum information theory to distinguish genuinely quantum from classical correlations. Combining a microscopic analysis of speckle-speckle correlations with an effective coarse-grained description of the beams, we show that quantum correlations exist even in 'classical'-like thermal light sources, and appear relevant for the implementation of ghost imaging in the regime of low illumination. We further demonstrate that the total correlations in the thermal source beams effectively determine the quality of the imaging, as quantified by the signal-to-noise ratio.
Quantum correlations become formidable tools for beating classical capacities of measurement. Preserving these advantages in practical systems, where experimental imperfections are unavoidable, is a challenge of the utmost importance. Here we propose and realize a quantum ghost imaging protocol stemming from the differential ghost imaging, a scheme elaborated so far in the limit of bright thermal light, particularly suitable in the relevant case of faint or sparse objects. The extension toward the quantum regime represents an important step as quantum correlations allow low-brightness imaging, desirable for reducing the absorption dose. Furthermore, we optimize the protocol in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, to compensate for the detrimental effects of detection noise and losses. We perform the experiment using spontaneous parametric down conversion light in a microscope configuration. The image is reconstructed exploiting nonclassical intensity correlation in the low photon flux regime, rather than photon pairs detection coincidences. On the one side, we validate the theoretical model and on the other we show the applicability of this technique by imaging biological samples.
Quantum imaging attempts to exploit the quantum features of light in order to enhance one or more aspects of classical imaging. Here we focus on two quantum imaging schemes – ghost imaging and interaction-free imaging – and moreover, on their combination. After a brief overview of the subject we report the main result: a laboratory demonstration of a new imaging scheme termed Interaction-Free Ghost Imaging. We then explain its merits for the task of imaging various structured objects. Next, we discuss an outgrowth of this scheme used for the purpose of nonlocal quantum erasure. We conclude by mentioning some related, low-dose schemes (both quantum and quantum-inspired) for X-ray and gammaray sources.
We propose an interaction-free ghost imaging scheme based on a thermal light source. The scheme exploits the quantum Zeno effect to suppress photon absorption by the sample and thus light-induced damage. Crucially, this suppression requires only that the interfering paths be distinguishable in principle; no quantum detection or measurement results are needed, thereby removing the requirement for single-photon detectors. Moreover, our scheme is built on high-intensity thermal illumination. This is the key difference between this work and traditional studies of interaction-free imaging relying on weak or single-photon illumination. We demonstrate that replacing entangled photon pairs with a thermal source can improve image quality without sacrificing the essence of interaction-free measurement. Consequently, our scheme achieves quantum Zeno effect-based enhancement of the imaging performance without requiring specialized quantum hardware such as entangled photon sources or single-photon detectors. We further show active suppression of background noise via controllable photon loss. Our work offers a practical and cost-effective route to non-destructive, high-quality imaging for light-sensitive samples in fields such as life sciences.