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

Quantum imaging with uncorrelated single photon sources

Thierry Bastin, C. Thiel, E. Solano, Joachim von Zanthier, G. S. Agarwal

Published Aug 28, 2008• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a technique to obtain sub-wavelength resolution using photons from uncorrelated single photon sources. The method employs N photons of wavelength λ spontaneously emitted from N atoms and subsequently detected by N detectors. We demonstrate that for certain detector positions the N-th order correlation function as a function of the first detector position is a pure sinusoidal oscillation with a fringe spacing of λ/N and a contrast of 100%. The result corresponds to an N-fold increase in resolution compared to classical microscopy. Our technique is also capable of imaging a distinct physical object with sub-Rayleigh resolution.

DOI
10.1117/12.794783

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It has been theoretically predicted that N-photon quantum imaging can realize either an N-fold resolution improvement (Heisenberg-like scaling) or a N-fold resolution improvement (standard quantum limit) beyond the Rayleigh diffraction bound, over classical imaging. Here, we report the experimental study on spatial sub-Rayleigh quantum imaging using a two-photon entangled source. Two experimental schemes are proposed and performed. In a Fraunhofer diffraction scheme with a lens, two-photon Airy disk pattern is observed with subwavelength diffraction property. In a lens imaging apparatus, however, two-photon sub-Rayleigh imaging for an object is realized with super-resolution property. The experimental results agree with the theoretical prediction in the two-photon quantum imaging regime.