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Chinese Physics B

High-visibility ghost imaging with phase-controlled discrete classical light sources

Xueying 雪滢 Wu 仵, Yue Zhao, Liming Li

Published May 2, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We take phase modulation to create discrete phase-controlled sources and realize the super-bunching effect by a phase-correlated method. From theoretical and numerical simulations, we find the space translation invariance of the bunching effect is a key point for the ghost imaging realization. Experimentally, we create the orderly phase-correlated discrete sources which can realize high-visibility second-order ghost imaging than the result with chaotic sources. Moreover, some factors affecting the visibility of ghost image are discussed in detail.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/ad4631

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Abstract We take phase modulation to create discrete phase-controlled sources and realize the super-bunching effect by a phase-correlated method. From theoretical and numerical simulations, we find the space translation invariance of the bunching effect is a key point for the ghost imaging realization. Experimentally, we create the orderly phase-correlated discrete sources which can realize high-visibility second-order ghost imaging than the result with chaotic sources. Moreover, some factors affecting the visibility of ghost image are discussed in detail.
The intrinsic higher-order correlation of intensities which gives a measure of ``pure'' correlations among photons (corresponding to multiphoton bunching) is investigated with regard to ghost imaging with thermal light. The synchronous detection of the same light field by all reference detectors, which is a necessary condition for achieving an NthN\text{th}Nth-order ghost image based on NNN-photon bunching, is discussed. Furthermore, it is found that the enhanced high visibility of NthN\text{th}Nth-order ghost imaging is a consequence of the contribution of NNN-photon bunching, which is not a small value but is equal to the sum of all contributions from $(N\ensuremath{-}1)$-photon bunching. These results differ from those obtained by certain other groups.
In this paper, we propose a theoretical scheme of many-ghost imaging in terms of NNNth-order correlated thermal light. We obtain the Gaussian thin lens equations in the many-ghost imaging protocol. We show that it is possible to produce $N\ensuremath{-}1$ ghost images of an object at different places in a nonlocal fashion by means of a higher order correlated imaging process with an NNNth-order correlated thermal source and correlation measurements. We investigate the visibility of the ghost images in the scheme and obtain the upper bounds of the visibility for the NNNth-order correlated thermal-light ghost imaging. It is found that the visibility of the ghost images can be dramatically enhanced when the order of correlation becomes larger. It is pointed out that the many-ghost imaging phenomenon is an observable physical effect induced by higher order coherence or higher order correlations of optical fields.
Superposition of multiple indistinguishable two-photon paths is introduced by means of a digital wave front encoding technique to design a spatially phase-correlated wave front of a light field, which could result in a superbunching effect with a bunching peak much larger than 2, the theoretical bunching peak of thermal light. Experimentally, we demonstrated a bunching peak of $11.72\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$ with the digitally designed phase-correlated wave front of classical light, which can be improved further on. A significant improvement of the visibility of the second-order interference fringes and ghost imaging was also experimentally demonstrated. Our method provides a convenient digitally controllable way to implement superposition of multiple different but indistinguishable two-photon paths, and therefore to modify the optical coherence properties of photons. Such a superbunching effect may have potential applications in improving the visibility of correlation interference and imaging, and enhancing the efficiency of two-photon nonlinear effects such as two-photon absorption effect.
Ghost imaging is a quantum optics technique that uses correlations between two beams to reconstruct an image from photons that do not interact with the object being imaged. While pairwise (second-order) correlations are usually used to create the ghost image, higher-order correlations can be utilized to improve the performance. In this Letter, we demonstrate higher-order atomic ghost imaging, using entangled ultracold metastable helium atoms from an s-wave collision halo. We construct higher-order ghost images up to fifth order and show that using higher-order correlations can improve the visibility of the images without impacting the resolution. This is the first demonstration of higher-order ghost imaging with massive particles and the first higher-order ghost imaging protocol of any type using a quantum source.
Spatial anti-bunching, in contrast to the well-known bunching behavior observed in classical light sources, describes a situation where photons tend to avoid each other in space, resulting in a reduced probability of detecting two or more photons in proximity. This anti-bunching effect, a hallmark of nonclassical light, signifies a deviation from classical intensity fluctuations and has been observed not only in free electrons and entangled photon pairs but also in chaotic-thermal light. This work investigates the generation mechanism of spatial anti-bunching correlation in random light fields, leveraging the wandering of light centers to induce a second-order coherence degree below unity. Unlike traditional Gaussian Schell-model partially coherent light, this work predicts the emergence of two fundamentally distinct orbital angular momentum states, arising from the inherent differences between rigid body rotation and fluid-like rotation in the wandering light. These predictions are supported by experimental evidence. Based on these findings, we propose a resolution-enhanced lensless ghost imaging system as an application example. Experimental results indicate that the adoption of the anti-bunching correlated light field as the illumination source enables the imaging system to attain super-resolution imaging capabilities. Our findings provide new insights into the utilization of anti-correlated light fields for precision imaging and detection applications.