Cross-waveband optical computing imaging.

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, cross-spectral optical computing imaging experiment has been achieved through a single exposure of a charge-coupled device. The experimental setup integrates single-pixel imaging (SPI) with ghost imaging (GI) through a photoelectric conversion circuit and a synchronous modulation system. The experimental process involves modulation in one wavelength band (in SPI) and demodulation using the GI algorithm in another. Significantly, our approach utilizes optical computing demodulation, a departure from the conventional electronic demodulation in GI (SPI), which involves the convolution between the bucket optical signals and the modulated patterns on the digital micromirror device. A proof-of-concept cross-band imaging experiment from near-infrared to visible light has been carried out. The results highlight the system's ability to capture images at up to 20 frames per second using near-infrared illumination, which are then reconstructed in the visible light spectrum. This success not only validates the feasibility of our approach but also expands the potential applications in the SPI or GI fields, particularly in scenarios where two-dimensional detector arrays are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive in certain electromagnetic spectra such as x-ray and terahertz.

Super-resolution imaging by anticorrelation of optical intensities.

Photon bunching, a feature of classical thermal fields, has been widely exploited to implement ghost imaging. Here we show that spatial photon antibunching can be experimentally observed via low-pass filtering of the intensities of the two thermal light beams from a beamsplitter correlation system. Through suitable choice of the filter thresholds, the minimum of the measured normalized anti-correlation function, i.e., antibunching dip, can be lower than 0.2, while its full-width-at-half-maximum can be much narrower than that of the corresponding positive correlation peak. Based on this anti-correlation effect, a super-resolution negative ghost image is achieved in a lensless scheme, in which the spatial resolution can exceed the Rayleigh diffraction limit by more than a factor of two. The setup is quite simple and easy to implement, which is an advantage for practical applications.

Sub-Rayleigh resolution ghost imaging by spatial low-pass filtering.

A sub-Rayleigh resolution ghost imaging experiment is performed via post-detection spatial low-pass filtering of the instantaneous intensity. A super-resolution reconstructed image has been achieved, in which the spatial resolution can exceed the Rayleigh diffraction limit by more than a factor of two. The resolution depends on the filter threshold, and the Rayleigh limit can be exceeded for a wide choice of threshold values. The setup is simple and easy to implement, which is an advantage for practical applications.

Lensless ghost imaging with sunlight.

An experiment demonstrating lensless ghost imaging (GI) with sunlight has been performed. A narrow spectral line is first filtered out and its intensity correlation measured. With this true thermal light source, an object consisting of two holes is imaged. The realization of lensless GI with sunlight is a step forward toward the practical application of GI with ordinary daylight as the source of illumination.

An improved algorithm to reduce noise in high-order thermal ghost imaging.

A modified Nth-order correlation function is derived that can effectively remove the noise background encountered in high-order thermal light ghost imaging (GI). Based on this, the quality of the reconstructed images in an Nth-order lensless GI setup has been greatly enhanced compared to former high-order schemes for the same sampling number. In addition, the dependence of the visibility and signal-to-noise ratio for different high-order images on the sampling number has been measured and compared.

Role of intensity fluctuations in third-order correlation double-slit interference of thermal light.

A third-order double-slit interference experiment with a pseudothermal light source in the high-intensity limit has been performed by actually recording the intensities in three optical paths. It is shown that not only can the visibility be dramatically enhanced compared to the second-order case as previously theoretically predicted and shown experimentally, but also that the higher visibility is a consequence of the contribution of third-order correlation interaction terms, which is equal to the sum of all contributions from second-order correlation. It is interesting that, when the two reference detectors are scanned in opposite directions, negative values for the third-order correlation term of the intensity fluctuations may appear. The phenomenon can be completely explained by the theory of classical statistical optics and is the first concrete demonstration of the influence of the third-order correlation terms.

Thermal light optical coherence tomography for transmissive objects.

We report an experimental demonstration of optical coherence tomography for transmissive objects utilizing second-order correlation ghost imaging with thermal light. To evaluate the longitudinal resolution of our system, the concept of the imaging longitudinal coherence length is introduced, which is more accurate for judging the image quality of ghost imaging with unequal optical paths than the conventional point-to-point longitudinal coherence length. Our work should help clarify our understanding of the longitudinal coherence of thermal light, as well as provide a scheme for performing optical coherence tomography on objects that are not highly reflective.

Critical exponents of block-block mutual information in one-dimensional infinite lattice systems.

We study the mutual information between two lattice blocks in terms of von Neumann entropies for one-dimensional infinite lattice systems. Quantum q-state Potts model and transverse-field spin-1/2 XY model are considered numerically by using the infinite matrix product state approach. As a system parameter varies, block-block mutual information exhibit singular behaviors that enable us to identify the critical points for the quantum phase transitions. As happens with von Neumann entanglement entropy of single block, at critical points, block-block mutual information for two adjacent blocks show a logarithmic leading behavior with increasing the size of the blocks, which yields the central charge c of the underlying conformal field theory, as it should be. It seems that two disjoint blocks show a similar logarithmic growth of the mutual information as a characteristic property of critical systems but the proportional coefficients of the logarithmic term are very different from the central charges. As the separation between the two lattice blocks increases, the mutual information reveals a consistent power-law decaying behavior for various truncation dimensions and lattice-block sizes. The critical exponent of block-block mutual information in the thermodynamic limit is estimated by extrapolating the exponents of power-law decaying regions for finite truncation dimensions. For a given lattice-block size ℓ, the critical exponents for the same universality classes seem to have very close values each other. Whereas the critical exponents have different values to a degree of distinction for the different universality classes. As the lattice-block size becomes bigger, the critical exponent becomes smaller. We discuss a relation between the exponents of block-block mutual information and correlation with the Shatten one-norm of block-block correlation.

High-visibility, high-order lensless ghost imaging with thermal light.

High-visibility Nth-order ghost imaging with thermal light has been realized by recording only the intensities in two optical paths in a lensless setup. It is shown that the visibility is dramatically enhanced as the order N increases, but longer integration times are required owing to the increased fluctuations of higher-order intensity correlation functions. It is also demonstrated that the required integration time for a good image depends on the partition ratio of the intensities on the two detectors and the complexity of the object.

Lensless ghost imaging with true thermal light.

We report the first (to our knowledge) experimental demonstration of lensless ghost imaging with true thermal light. Although there is no magnification, the method is suitable for all wavelengths and so may find special applications in cases where it is not possible to use lenses, such as with x rays or gamma rays. We also numerically show that some magnification may be realized away from the focal plane, but the image will always be somewhat blurred.

Absolute self-calibration of the quantum efficiency of single-photon detectors.

Single-photon detectors are finding increasingly wide application in all branches of science and technology thus a precise knowledge of their quantum efficiency is an essential prerequisite. We have performed the first proof-of-principle demonstration of a means to determine the quantum efficiency by which no second detector or reference standard is required. This absolute self-calibration method is based on the time correlation of entangled photons pairs emitted in spontaneous parametric down conversion. The measured quantum efficiency of a Si avalanche photodiode single-photon detector agrees well with the product specifications.

Correlated two-photon imaging with true thermal light.

Received March 14, 2005; revised manuscript received May 4, 2005; accepted May 4, 2005 We report what is believed to be the first experimental demonstration of two-photon correlated imaging with true thermal light from a hollow cathode lamp. The coherence time of the source is much shorter than that of previous experiments using random scattered light from a laser. A two-pinhole mask was used as object, and the corresponding thin lens equation was well satisfied. Since thermal light sources are easier to obtain and measure than entangled light, it is conceivable that they may be used in special imaging applications.