Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 2: Quanteninformation (Photonen und nichtklassisches Licht I)
Q 2.6: Talk
Monday, March 19, 2007, 11:45–12:00, 5L
Quantum Imaging with Incoherent Photons — •Christoph Thiel1, Enrique Solano2, Thierry Bastin3, John Martin3, Joachim von Zanthier1, and Girish S. Agarwal4 — 1Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany — 2Physics department, ASC, and CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany — 3Institut de Physique Nucléaire, Atomique et de Spectroscopie, Université de Liège au Sart Tilman, Liège, Belgium — 4Department of Physics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
We propose a technique to obtain sub-wavelength resolution with 100% visibility using incoherent light. The method employs N photons spontaneously emitted from N atoms and subsequently detected by N detectors. We demonstrate that for certain detector positions r2,…,rN the N-th order correlation function as a function of r1 takes the form 1+cosNδ(r1), resulting in a spatial modulation with a fringe spacing λ/N and a contrast of 100%.
The result corresponds to an N-fold increase in resolution compared to the classical interference pattern, obtained in, e.g., Young’s double slit experiment. In our method the photons are created by spontaneous emission. The interference signal with a resolution of λ/N and 100% contrast is thus generated by incoherent light.