Metasurfaces can precisely manipulate the amplitude, phase, and polarization of incident light through subwavelength structures, greatly advancing the quantum meta-holographic imaging. However, the current methods of using quantum holography only control either the amplitude or the phase on the imaging plane, so the resulted scalar holography without the polarization distribution has limited imaging channels. Here, the vectorial meta-holography using entangled signal-idler photon pairs is experimentally demonstrated to realize remotely controlled multi-channel quantum imaging. By simultaneous control of the amplitude ratio between two cross-polarization holographic images and their phase difference on the image plane, the polarization distribution accordingly changes with the incident polarization state. The accurate correspondence ensures the correct reconstruction of 32 incident polarization states with an average fidelity up to 94.78%. This enables entangled idler photons to remotely control the holographic images reconstructed by the entangled signal photons, where the signal-to-noise ratio is as high as 10.78 dB, even for maximally mixed quantum states. This vectorial meta-holography using entangled states has a larger polarization state information capacity and will facilitate miniaturized quantum imaging and efficient quantum state tomography.
Metasurfaces can precisely manipulate the amplitude, phase, and polarization of incident light through subwavelength structures, greatly advancing the quantum meta-holographic imaging. However, the current methods of using quantum holography only control either the amplitude or the phase on the imaging plane, so the resulted scalar holography without the polarization distribution has limited imaging channels. Here, the vectorial meta-holography using entangled signal-idler photon pairs is experimentally demonstrated to realize remotely controlled multi-channel quantum imaging. By simultaneous control of the amplitude ratio between two cross-polarization holographic images and their phase difference on the image plane, the polarization distribution accordingly changes with the incident polarization state. The accurate correspondence ensures the correct reconstruction of 32 incident polarization states with an average fidelity up to 94.78%. This enables entangled idler photons to remotely control the holographic images reconstructed by the entangled signal photons, where the signal-to-noise ratio is as high as 10.78 dB, even for maximally mixed quantum states. This vectorial meta-holography using entangled states has a larger polarization state information capacity and will facilitate miniaturized quantum imaging and efficient quantum state tomography.
Metasurfaces present novel prospects for compacted quantum technologies by providing precise manipulation of amplitude, phase, and polarization of the incident light. Utilizing the advanced polarization control and multiplexing capabilities of metasurfaces, the capacity for detecting and processing quantum information can be enhanced. In this work, we optimize metasurface fabrication using electron-beam lithography and develop a custom SEM image recognition program for precise structure assessment and improved imaging quality. We achieve holographic imaging under quantum state incidence, enabling the reconstruction of quantum state information from the resulting meta-holography.
Holography provides comprehensive characterization of complex light fields, laying the foundation for biological microscopy and precision measurement. Although the amplitude and phase information can be quantitatively analyzed through phase-shifting holography, the additional beam deflection during multistep phase-shifting operations and the shot noise will inevitably reduce the accuracy of holography. Here, a quantum nonlocal holography via multichannel metasurfaces (QNHM) is proposed to achieve high-quality holography under high noise levels. By integrating multiple quantum channels on the metasurface, the projection probabilities of idler photons in four polarization bases are simultaneously measured. Since the spatiotemporal field of signal photons are nonlocally modulated by the polarization of idler photons, the phase-shifting operations is completely avoided. The coincidence measurement greatly filters out the shot noise from the time domain, thereby enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio, image contrast, and accuracy. The proposed QNHM may open up feasible avenues in biomedicine, material analysis, and quantum information processing.
This study investigates quantum holography, emphasizing its capability to conduct holographic imaging without the requirement for first-order coherence—a limitation of classical physics. By harnessing quantum entanglement, where image data is embedded in the phase correlation of polarization-entangled photon pairs and spread across the transverse spatial dimension, quantum holography enhances imaging performance. This technique not only improves resolution for polarization-sensitive phase objects but also provides resilience against stochastic phase fluctuations and uncontrolled ambient light, offering significant tangible benefits compared to conventional holography. Additionally, its integration with quantum tomography enables precise analysis of multi-dimensional hyper-entangled states, advancing quantum state analysis. Although current challenges remain, such as extended acquisition times due to technological constraints, ongoing advancements in faster, more affordable sensors are expected to address these issues. As a result, quantum holography is poised to have broad applications in biological imaging, sensing, and the exploration of complex high-dimensional quantum states. These developments position quantum holography as a crucial technology in the future of quantum optical communication and information processing, driving innovation and opening new avenues in these fields.
Quantum imaging has non-negligible advantages in terms of sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio, and novel imaging schemes. Based on metasurfaces, the information density and stability of the quantum imaging system can be further improved. Here we experimentally demonstrate that two patterns, simultaneously and independently superimposed on a high-efficiency dielectric metasurface, can be remotely switched via polarization-entangled photon pairs. Furthermore, using the time-correlated property of entangled photon pairs, the information carried by quantum light can be remarkably discriminated from background noise. This work confirms that the phase manipulation of quantum light with metasurfaces has a huge potential in the field of quantum imaging, quantum state tomography, and also promises real-world quantum metasurface devices.
Abstract Holography provides an effective solution for retrieving the complex optical field, laying the foundation of precision measurement ranging from biological imaging to material analysis. However, conventional holography relies on splitting photon paths by a bulky interferometer to locally modulate the interference field, yielding only the wrapped phase. To overcome this, a quantum differential holography (QDH) is proposed, which employs a metasurface-integrated optical differentiator to achieve nonlocal polarization interference within a single signal photon path. The phase information is optically encoded as derivatives within the measured intensity, eliminating the fragile arctangent-based phase unwrapping step that plagues low-visibility fringe reconstruction. Furthermore, interference is remotely modulated by selecting the basis of an idler photon whose polarization is entangled with the spatiotemporal field of signal photon. The QDH provides a compact and stable quantum holographic platform, which unlocks additional possibilities for biomedicine, materials science, and quantum information processing.
Quantum metasurfaces composed of subwavelength two-dimensional atomic arrays hold great promise as a practical and scalable atom-photon interface. However, these quantum metasurfaces are limited to amplitude control of photonic states thereby restricting the quantum information processing task they can implement. In this work, we present a method that enables precise control over the phase distribution of quantum photonic states. We achieve this by developing a quantum holography technique, which involves preparing a superposition of holograms and leveraging both electromagnetically induced transparency and long-range Rydberg interactions. Our method enables encoding of arbitrary recoverable images that are entangled with the atomic array degrees of freedom rapidly on the order of microseconds. Furthermore, we extend our analysis to include many-body atom-photon entangled states by establishing a quantitative mapping between the atomic and photonic states. Finally, we discuss the experimental realization of our approach, potential error mechanisms, and practical quantum optics applications.