Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Dr Bohr-Gasse 7, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
Research Platform Quantum Phenomena &Nanoscale Biological Systems (QuNaBioS), University of Vienna, Dr Bohr-Gasse 7, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
Nat Commun. 2016 Jul 19;7:12172. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12172.
Despite investigations for over 70 years, the absolute limits of human vision have remained unclear. Rod cells respond to individual photons, yet whether a single-photon incident on the eye can be perceived by a human subject has remained a fundamental open question. Here we report that humans can detect a single-photon incident on the cornea with a probability significantly above chance. This was achieved by implementing a combination of a psychophysics procedure with a quantum light source that can generate single-photon states of light. We further discover that the probability of reporting a single photon is modulated by the presence of an earlier photon, suggesting a priming process that temporarily enhances the effective gain of the visual system on the timescale of seconds.
尽管已经进行了 70 多年的研究，但人类视觉的绝对极限仍然不清楚。视杆细胞对单个光子做出反应，但一个人是否能感知到落在眼睛上的单个光子，这仍然是一个基本的开放性问题。在这里，我们报告说，人类可以以明显高于偶然的概率检测到落在角膜上的单个光子。这是通过将心理物理学程序与可以产生单光子光态的量子光源相结合来实现的。我们进一步发现，报告单个光子的概率受到先前光子存在的调制，这表明存在一个启动过程，该过程在几秒钟的时间尺度上暂时增强了视觉系统的有效增益。
