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Quantum ghost imaging with improved diffraction limit

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Abstract

Traditional quantum ghost imaging technique uses three-photon spontaneous parametric down-conversion for producing beams of entangled photons. Two main factors limiting the spatial resolution of ghost imaging techniques are the (usually small) angular range in which the phase-matching condition is satisfied and angular apertures of the optical elements. In this paper, we propose to use the spontaneous four-wave back-mixing process to obtain quantum ghost images due to its ability to weaken the requirements on the phase-matching condition. Thus, only angular apertures of the optical elements remain as the main limiting factor, in contrast to setups where three-photon processes are used. Therefore, the upper bound on spatial resolution is higher. As a result, an improvement in resolution can be expected, assuming that other factors remain the same. Two design options that provide these benefits are proposed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Physics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 1, bld 2, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Dmitriy A. Balakin & Alexander V. Belinsky

  2. Scientific and Practical Center for Specialized Medical Care for Children named after V. F. Voyno-Yasenetsky, Aviatorov str., 38, Moscow, Russia, 119620

    Alexander V. Belinsky

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  1. Dmitriy A. Balakin
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Correspondence to Dmitriy A. Balakin.

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The authors are grateful to Sergey A. Magnitskiy, Anatoly S. Chirkin and Mikhail Smagin for help with the text. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and constructive comments.

The authors acknowledge the support by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under the Project Number 18-01-00598-A.

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Balakin, D.A., Belinsky, A.V. Quantum ghost imaging with improved diffraction limit. Quantum Inf Process 21, 251 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-022-03602-w

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