Interaction-free imaging of multi-pixel objects

TL;DR

This paper extends interaction-free measurement (IFM) imaging to multi-pixel, semi-transparent objects by encoding pixel information into orbital angular momentum, enabling parallel imaging with improved efficiency.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel IFM scheme that encodes multi-pixel information into internal degrees of freedom, allowing efficient parallel imaging of complex objects.

Findings

The scheme enables interaction-free imaging of multi-pixel objects.

It exhibits better theoretical efficiency than single-pixel IFM schemes.

The approach can be extended to other degrees of freedom for 1D and 2D imaging.

Abstract

Quantum imaging, one of the pillars of quantum technologies, is well-suited to study sensitive samples which require low-light conditions, like biological tissues. In this context, interaction-free measurements (IFM) allow us infer the presence of an opaque object without the photon interacting with the sample. Current IFM schemes are designed for single-pixel objects, while real-life samples are structured, multi-pixel objects. Here we extend the IFM imaging schemes to multi-pixel, semi-transparent objects, by encoding the information about the pixels into an internal degree of freedom, namely orbital angular momentum (OAM). This allows us to image the pixels in parallel. Our solution exhibits a better theoretical efficiency than the single-pixel case. Our scheme can be extended to other degrees of freedom, like the photon radial quantum number, in order to image 1D and 2D objects.