Correlation Plenoptic Imaging With Entangled Photons

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel correlation plenoptic imaging technique using entangled photons from SPDC, enabling refocusing of images without resolution loss, surpassing traditional limits of plenoptic imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a new method combining plenoptic imaging with quantum entanglement to improve 3D imaging resolution and refocusing capabilities.

Findings

Theoretical demonstration of correlation plenoptic imaging with entangled photons.

Proof-of-principle showing refocusing of out-of-focus images without resolution loss.

Potential to surpass traditional plenoptic imaging resolution limits.

Abstract

Plenoptic imaging is a novel optical technique for three-dimensional imaging in a single shot. It is enabled by the simultaneous measurement of both the location and the propagation direction of light in a given scene. In the standard approach, the maximum spatial and angular resolutions are inversely proportional, and so are the resolution and the maximum achievable depth of focus of the 3D image. We have recently proposed a method to overcome such fundamental limits by combining plenoptic imaging with an intriguing correlation remote-imaging technique: ghost imaging. Here, we theoretically demonstrate that correlation plenoptic imaging can be effectively achieved by exploiting the position-momentum entanglement characterizing spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) photon pairs. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, we shall show that correlation plenoptic imaging with entangled photons may enable the refocusing of an out-of-focus image at the same depth of focus of a standard plenoptic device, but without sacrificing diffraction-limited image resolution.