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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Turbulence-free quantum ghost imaging experiments and results

Ronald E. Meyers, Keith S. Deacon, Arnold D. Tunick

Published Sep 8, 2011• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Turbulence is a serious problem for long distance imaging such as from satellites or ground based telescopes. In this paper we discuss our turbulence-free ghost imaging1 approach that is virtually free from the degrading effects of turbulence. We discuss motivation for the experiments, theory, experimental setup, procedures, and results. The results suggest that thermal two-photon interference may not only be used to improve imaging through turbulence but may also lead to a resource for quantum information processing.

DOI
10.1117/12.898966

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arXiv:0805.1166•May 7, 2008•1 citation
Turbulence is a serious problem for long distance imaging such as from satellites or ground based telescopes. In this paper we discuss our turbulence-free ghost imaging1 approach that is virtually free from the degrading effects of turbulence. We discuss motivation for the experiments, theory, experimental setup, procedures, and results. The results suggest that thermal two-photon interference may not only be used to improve imaging through turbulence but may also lead to a resource for quantum information processing.
We experimentally demonstrate turbulence-free space-time quantum imaging. Quantum images of remote objects are produced with two sensors measuring at different space-time points under turbulent conditions. The quantum images generated move depending on the time delay between the two sensor measurements and the speed of a rotating ground glass that is part of a chaotic laser light source. For small delay times turbulence has virtually no adverse affect on the moving quantum images. The experimental setup and findings contribute to understanding the fundamentals of multi-photon quantum interference in complex media. Furthermore, the space-time memory demonstrated in our research provides important new pathways for investigating quantum imaging, quantum information storage and quantum computing. The turbulence-free space-time quantum imaging procedure greatly increases the information content of each photon measured. The moved quantum images are in fact new images that are stored in a space-time virtual memory process. The images are stored within the same quantum imaging data sets and thus quantum imaging can produce more information per photon measured than was previously realized.
We report on an experimental and theoretical investigation of quantum imaging where the images are stored in both space and time. Ghost images of remote objects are produced with either one or two beams of chaotic laser light generated by a rotating ground glass and two sensors measuring the reference field and bucket field at different space-time points. We further observe that the ghost images translate depending on the time delay between the sensor measurements. The ghost imaging experiments are performed both with and without turbulence. A discussion of the physics of the space-time imaging is presented in terms of quantum nonlocal two-photon analysis to support the experimental results. The theoretical model includes certain phase factors of the rotating ground glass. These experiments demonstrated a means to investigate the time and space aspects of ghost imaging and showed that ghost imaging contains more information per measured photon than was previously recognized where multiple ghost images are stored within the same ghost imaging data sets. This suggests new pathways to explore quantum information stored not only in multi-photon coincidence information but also in time delayed multi-photon interference. The research is applicable to making enhanced space-time quantum images and videos of moving objects where the images are stored in both space and time.
Although questions regarding fundamental issues of quantum theory still exist, quantum entanglement has started to play important roles in practical engineering applications. Quantum imaging is one of these exciting areas. Quantum imaging has so far demonstrated three peculiar features: enhancing the spatial resolution of imaging beyond the diffraction limit; reproducing ghost images in a “nonlocal” manner; and dispersion-cancelation or turbulence-free imaging. The enhanced spatial resolution apparently “violates” the uncertainty principle. The ghost imaging is considered as a “nonlocal” phenomenon due to a point-to-point correlation of two interaction-free photons at distance. All the peculiar features are the results of two-photon interference, which involves the superposition of two-photon amplitudes, a nonclassical entity corresponding to different yet indistinguishable alternative ways of creating a joint-detection event. The effect of turbulence on a classic image can be easily seen from the blurring of the images.
Distinct from previous principle-demonstrations, this practical quantum ghost imaging experiment presents the first set of two-photon images captured by a photon counting CCD camera by means of jointly counting 'reflected' photons from the object. In fact, the CCD camera was not 'looking' at the object at all. Rather, the CCD camera was facing the chaotic light source. The output of the CCD camera was used for coincidence registration of the two-photon joint-detection events with another photon counting detector which simply collects all randomly reflected photons from the surface of the object. It is also interesting to find that the observed two-photon images are 'distortion-free', i.e., any disturbances made along the light path has no effect on the quality of the image. These experimental observations are not only useful for practical field-applications, but also important from fundamental point of view. The experiment evidences a rejection of the 'projection shadow' idea in a non-deniable way and further explores the two-photon interference nature of thermal light ghost imaging.
In this article, we propose the two-photon interference imaging based on two-photon interference mechanism with thermal light source. Theoretical and experimental results show that the imaging quality and imaging speed of two-photon interference imaging are comparable to that of classical optical imaging, and much better than that of conventional quantum imaging (ghost imaging). Furthermore, Two-photon interference imaging can effectively overcome the effect of atmospheric turbulence and other harsh optical environments. The physical essence is the inhibition of two-photon interference mechanism on atmospheric turbulence.
One of the most surprising consequences of quantum mechanics is the nonlocal multi-particle interference observable in joint-detection of distant particle-detectors. Ghost imaging is one of such phenomena. Two types of ghost imaging have been experimentally demonstrated since 1995. Type-one ghost imaging uses entangled photon pairs as the light source. The nonlocal point-to-point image-forming correlation is the result of a constructive-destructive superposition among a large number of biphoton amplitudes, a nonclassical entity corresponding to different yet indistinguishable alternative ways of producing a joint-detction event between distant photodetectors. Type-two ghost imaging uses chaotic-thermal light. The type-two image-forming correlation is the result of interferences between paired two-photon amplitudes, corresponding to two different yet indistinguishable alternative ways of triggering a join-detection event by two independent photons. A great deal of confusion about ghost imaging comes from "ghost shadow". Similar to x-ray photography, a ghost shadow can be made in coincidences by "blocking-partial blocking-unblocking" of either co-rotating laser beams or classically correlated "speckles". "Ghost shadow" is indeed a classical phenomenon. The physics of ghost imaging, however, is fundamentally different. This article is aimed at exploring the nonlocal two-photon interference nature of ghost imaging.