Zhang Yingwen, Sit Alicia, Bouchard Frédéric, Larocque Hugo, Grenapin Florence, Cohen Eliahu, Elitzur Avshalom C, Harden James L, Boyd Robert W, Karimi Ebrahim
Opt Express. 2019 Feb 4;27(3):2212-2224. doi: 10.1364/OE.27.002212.
Quantum - or classically correlated - light can be employed in various ways to improve resolution and measurement sensitivity. In an "interaction-free" measurement, a single photon can be used to reveal the presence of an object placed within one arm of an interferometer without being absorbed by it. With a technique known as "ghost-imaging", entangled photon pairs are used for detecting an opaque object with significantly improved signal-to-noise ratio while preventing over-illumination. Here, we integrate these two methods to obtain a new imaging technique which we term "interaction-free ghost-imaging" (IFGI). With this new technique, we reduce photon illumination on the object by up to 26.5% while still maintaining at least the same image quality of conventional ghost-imaging. Alternatively, IFGI can improve image signal-to-noise ratio by 18% when given the same number of interacting photons as in standard ghost-imaging. IFGI is also sensitive to phase and polarisation changes of the photons introduced by a structured object. These advantages make IFGI superior for probing light-sensitive materials and biological tissues.
量子光或经典关联光可通过多种方式用于提高分辨率和测量灵敏度。在“无相互作用”测量中，单个光子可用于揭示放置在干涉仪一臂内的物体的存在，而不会被其吸收。利用一种称为“鬼成像”的技术，纠缠光子对可用于检测不透明物体，同时显著提高信噪比并防止过度照明。在此，我们将这两种方法结合起来，获得了一种新的成像技术，我们将其称为“无相互作用鬼成像”（IFGI）。通过这种新技术，我们将物体上的光子照明减少了高达26.5%，同时仍至少保持与传统鬼成像相同的图像质量。或者，当与标准鬼成像中相互作用的光子数量相同时，IFGI可将图像信噪比提高18%。IFGI对由结构化物体引入的光子的相位和偏振变化也很敏感。这些优点使IFGI在探测光敏材料和生物组织方面具有优势。
