PR37 An Alternative Strategy for Photon-Pair Generation using Integrated Photonics on Silicon Wafers (1640968-Y4)

Research activities include the design, fabrication and poling of a spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) waveguide in periodically-poled thin-film lithium niobate SPDC device, and measurements of photon-pair generation in it. Summary of a Project Outcomes report of research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Project Number 1640968 (Year 4).

Single-Pixel Imaging with Heralded Single Photons

Traditional remote sensing applications are often based on pulsed laser illumination with a narrow linewidth and characteristic repetition rate, which are not conducive to covert operation. Whatever methods are employed for covert sensing, a key requirement is for the probe light to be indistinguishable from background illumination. We present a method to perform single-pixel imaging that suppresses the effect of background light and hence improves the signal-to-noise ratio by using correlated photon-pairs produced via spontaneous parametric down conversion. One of the photons in the pair is used to illuminate the object whilst the other acts as a temporal reference, allowing the signal photons to be distinguished from background noise. This heralding method shows how the noise regime is key to producing higher contrast images.