Abstract

We give a protocol for ghost imaging in a way that is always counterfactual—while imaging an object, no light interacts with that object. This extends the idea of counterfactuality beyond communication, showing how this interesting phenomenon can be leveraged for metrology. Given, in the infinite limit, no photons ever go to the imaged object, it presents a method of imaging even the most light-sensitive of objects without damaging them. Even when not in the infinite limit, it still provides a many-fold improvement in visibility and signal-to-noise ratio over previous protocols, with over an order of magnitude reduction in absorbed intensity.

Details

Title
Counterfactual ghost imaging
Author
Hance, Jonte R 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rarity, John 1 

1  University of Bristol, Quantum Engineering Technology Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bristol, UK (GRID:grid.5337.2) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7603) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20566387
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-021-00411-4
ProQuest document ID
2536110125
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.