Beating classical imaging limits with entangled photons

摘要

How can quantum mechanics deliver better imaging performance? Parametric down-conversion sources produce pairs ofphotons that are correlated in many degrees of freedom, including their spatial positions. By using a camera to detectthese pairs of photons it is possible configure imaging systems that can either beat the classical resolution limit or theclassical noise limit. We demonstrate how a simple down-conversion source based on a laser and non-linear crystal canbe combined with an EMCCD camera to achieve either of these outcomes. Firstly, when both photons pass through thesample, we show a full-field, resolution-enhancing scheme, based on the centroid estimation of the photon pairs. Byoptimising the software control of the EMCCD camera running in the photon-sparse regime we achieve a resolutionenhancement over the equivalent classical limit. Secondly, we show a similar scheme but where only one of the twophotons pass through the sample and the other acts as a reference, in this case the ratio of the two resulting imageseliminates the background noise of the camera, and background light, achieving an increase in image contrast.