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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Applied Hyperspectral Mid-IR Quantum Imaging

Marlon Placke, Chiara Lindner, Felix Mann, Inna Kviatkovsky, Helen M. Chrzanowski, Frank Kühnemann, Sven Ramelow

Published Jun 23, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Sensing with undetected photons has become a distinct research field with numerous demonstrated applications especially dedicated to mid-infrared wavelength regions. These spectral bands allow one to probe sample compositions spectroscopically - bypassing the need for invasive chemical preparation. Especially for biomedical imaging applications, the molecular vibrational resonances can serve as a contrast mechanism that does not require expensive and cumbersome reagent labeling steps.

DOI
10.1109/cleo/europe-eqec65582.2025.11109494

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Sensing with undetected photons has become a distinct research field with numerous demonstrated applications especially dedicated to mid-infrared wavelength regions. These spectral bands allow one to probe sample compositions spectroscopically - bypassing the need for invasive chemical preparation. Especially for biomedical imaging applications, the molecular vibrational resonances can serve as a contrast mechanism that does not require expensive and cumbersome reagent labeling steps.
Sensing with undetected photons has become a vibrant, application-driven research domain with a special focus on the mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelength region. Since the mid-IR contains spectral bands with highly specific and strong molecular absorbance signatures, often referred to as fingerprints, a multitude of different samples and their compositions can be detected and quantified spectroscopically. Enhancing this spectroscopic method with imaging capabilities leads to a powerful technique for environmental monitoring and biomedical applications that enables automated diagnostics while omitting time-consuming and non-reversible labeling steps. To evade the shortcomings of state-of-the-art instruments for mid-IR hyperspectral microscopy—namely cost, complexity, power consumption, and performance, which stem from technological challenges in mid-IR detection and light sources—we construct a proof-of-concept nonlinear interferometer in a wide-field imaging arrangement. This nominally narrowband imaging technique is then expanded to acquire broadband spectral information through capturing images for varying interferometer displacement and applying a pixelwise Fourier-transform of the resulting interferograms, yielding high-resolution infrared spectra for each camera pixel. For the broadband range of 2300−3100cm −1 , covering the important CH-stretch band, we perform hyperspectral imaging that simultaneously resolves 3500 spatial modes, each with a spectral resolution of 10cm −1 , leveraging in total around 10 5 spatio-spectrally entangled photon modes. Our image acquisition uses a commercial sCMOS camera, while a medium-power and compact continuous-wave pump laser is the only necessary light source. For a moderate speed of 360 voxel/s, we obtain a predominantly shot-noise-influenced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 50. We further demonstrate the practicality of our novel hyperspectral imaging technique for microplastics detection and bio-imaging tasks and outline engineering solutions to increase its speed by several orders of magnitude. This shows that our quantum imaging technique is highly promising for applications requiring compact, cost-effective label-free analyses.
Laser scanning microscopy (LSM) is known to be the workhorse for modern life-science, it allows to get new insights into a variety of biological processes. LSM together with illumination in the mid infrared region (Mid-IR) permits to map the chemical composition of samples to a space frame. However, low-light observations in the Mid-IR spectrum are still challenging and a limiting factor for a faster development. A label-free quantum scanning imaging system is presented here, capable of performing the detection in the visible regime, while the illumination is carried out in the Mid-IR region. Our quantum imaging with undetected light implementation aims to retrieve amplitude and phase images of biological samples containing a variety of functional groups that are present in the Mid-IR region