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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Ghost Imaging with Paired X-ray Photons

Aviad Schori, Dmitri Borodin, Kenji Tamasaku, S. Shwartz

Published Jan 1, 2018• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We observed of ghost imaging with parametrically down-converted x-ray photons pairs. We reconstructed the image of slits with nominally zero background levels. Our procedure can lead to the observation of quantum phenomena at x-ray wavelengths.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_at.2018.jth2a.7

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We report the experimental observation of ghost imaging with paired x-ray photons, which are generated by parametric downconversion. We use the one-to-one relation between the photon energies and the emission angles and the anticorrelation between the kkk-vectors of the signal and the idler photons to reconstruct the images of slits with nominally zero background levels. Further extension of our procedure can be used for the observation of various quantum phenomena at x-ray wavelengths.
“Ghost” imaging is a process utilizing entangled photon pairs, by which an image is produced indirectly, using photons that have never interacted with the object being imaged. We can do this by taking advantage of correlations inherent in Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC), which is used to produce these entangled photon pairs. SPDC is a classically forbidden process in which a photon of a high frequency is converted into a pair of photons. The change in frequency makes this a nonlinear process. Processes like absorption, reflection, refraction, and polarization are linear processes. These can affect the properties of a light field but cannot change the frequency. SPDC allows us to produce a pair of correlated photons. By utilizing a coincidence-counter, we will be able to measure photon pairs from the source beam arriving within a narrow time interval. With this restriction, we can limit our attention to these correlated photons. One of these photons, which does interact with the object to be imaged, is used to turn on a “camera” detecting the other photon. It is the correlations between these photons that allow for ghost imaging, the reconstruction of the image of an object, even though the object never interacts directly with those single photons that are going to our camera.
Ghost imaging was first demonstrated with entangled photon pairs and well-known for its peculiar properties. The signal beam that illuminates the object possesses no spatial resolution, whereas the reference beam, which never interacts with the object, is spatially resolved. Either beam alone cannot retrieve the image, which can only be obtained when the signal and reference beams are correlated. Here we will report a ghost imaging experiment with even more peculiar properties, in which the image can be reconstructed when no photon interacts with the object or even no photon in neither signal nor reference beam. All the photons interacted with the object are discarded. Only the time bins with zero photon are employed to retrieve the image, a process referred to as "ghost imaging with zero photons" hereafter. The reason why ghost image can be retrieved with zero photons is jointly determined by photon-number projection measurement and photon statistics of thermal light. The results are helpful to resolve the debate on the physics of ghost imaging and understand the relation between quantum and classical correlations.
Quantum imaging encompasses a broad range of methods that exploit the quantum properties of light to capture information about an object. One such approach involves using a two-photon quantum state, where only one photon interacts with the object being imaged while its entangled partner carries spatial or temporal information. To implement this technique, it is necessary to generate specific quantum states of light and detect photons at the single-photon level. While this method has been successfully demonstrated in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, extending it to X-rays has faced significant challenges due to the difficulties in producing a sufficient rate of X-ray photon pairs and detecting them with adequate resolution. Here, we demonstrate record high rates of correlated X-ray photon pairs produced via a spontaneous parametric down-conversion process and we employ these photons to perform quantum correlation imaging of several objects, including a biological sample (E. cardamomum seedpod). Notably, we report an unprecedented detection rate of about 6,300 pairs per hour and the observation of energy anti-correlation for the X-ray photon pairs. We also present a detailed analysis of the properties of the down-converted X-ray photons, as well as a comprehensive study of the correlation imaging formation, including a study of distortions and corrections. These results mark a substantial advancement in X-ray quantum imaging, expanding the possibilities of X-ray quantum optical technologies, and illustrating the pathway towards enhancing biological imaging with reduced radiation doses.
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.