High visibility temporal ghost imaging with classical light

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that using superbunching pseudothermal light significantly enhances the visibility and quality of temporal ghost imaging with classical light, approaching the performance of entangled photon pairs.

Contribution

It introduces the use of superbunching pseudothermal light to improve temporal ghost imaging visibility and image quality, providing a classical alternative to quantum entanglement.

Findings

Visibility increased from about 4.7% to 75% with superbunching light.

High-quality ghost images require collecting many data points.

The study clarifies differences between classical and quantum ghost imaging.

Abstract

High visibility temporal ghost imaging with classical light is possible when superbunching pseudothermal light is employed. In the numerical simulation, the visibility of temporal ghost imaging with pseudothermal light equaling ($4.7\pm 0.2$)\% can be increased to ($75\pm 8$)\% in the same scheme with superbunching pseudothermal light. The reasons for the difference in visibility and quality of the retrieved images in different situations are discussed in detail. It is concluded that high visibility and high quality temporal ghost image can be obtained by collecting large enough number of data points. The results are helpful to understand the difference between ghost imaging with classical light and entangled photon pairs. The superbunching pseudothermal light can be employed to improve the image quality in ghost imaging applications.