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Quantum microscopy based on Hong–Ou–Mandel interference

Nature Photonics volume 16, pages 384–389 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) interference—the bunching of indistinguishable photons at a beamsplitter—is a staple of quantum optics and lies at the heart of many quantum sensing approaches and recent optical quantum computers. Here we report a full-field, scan-free quantum imaging technique that exploits HOM interference to reconstruct the surface depth profile of transparent samples. We demonstrate the ability to retrieve images with micrometre-scale depth features with photon flux as small as seven photon pairs per frame. Using a single-photon avalanche diode camera, we measure both bunched and anti-bunched photon-pair distributions at the output of an HOM interferometer, which are combined to provide a lower-noise image of the sample. This approach demonstrates the possibility of HOM microscopy as a tool for the label-free imaging of transparent samples in the very low photon regime.

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Fig. 1: Principles of HOM imaging.
Fig. 2: HOM imaging setup.
Fig. 3: HOM sensing with an SPAD camera.
Fig. 4: Full-field HOM sensing.
Fig. 5: Full-field HOM imaging.

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Data availability

The experimental data that support the findings presented here are available from https://doi.org/10.5525/gla.researchdata.1241.

Code availability

The codes that support the findings presented here are available from https://doi.org/10.5525/gla.researchdata.1241.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Cromb for fruitful discussions on the interpretation of the results. We acknowledge financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grants EP/R030413/1, EP/M01326X/1 and EP/R030081/1) and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 801060. D.F. acknowledges support from the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies programme. H.D. acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 840958. N.W. acknowledges support from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Bienvenu Ndagano, Hugo Defienne, Yash D. Shah, Ashley Lyons, Niclas Westerberg & Daniele Faccio

  2. SUPA, Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Dominic Branford & Erik M. Gauger

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  1. Bienvenu Ndagano
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  8. Daniele Faccio
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Contributions

D.F. conceived the concept and supervised the work. B.N., H.D., A.L. and D.F. conceived and discussed the experimental setup. B.N. performed the experiment. Y.D.S. microfabricated the etched sample. D.B., N.W. and E.M.G. applied noise reduction approaches. All the authors contributed to the analysis of the results and the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniele Faccio.

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Nature Photonics thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Ndagano, B., Defienne, H., Branford, D. et al. Quantum microscopy based on Hong–Ou–Mandel interference. Nat. Photon. 16, 384–389 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00980-6

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