Ghost imaging with zero photons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel ghost imaging method where the image is reconstructed using only time bins with zero photons, challenging traditional notions of photon-object interaction.

Contribution

It introduces a new ghost imaging technique utilizing zero-photon events, advancing understanding of quantum and classical correlations in imaging.

Findings

Image can be reconstructed without any photon interacting with the object.

Photon-number projection measurement and thermal light statistics enable zero-photon ghost imaging.

The method helps clarify the physics underlying ghost imaging and the role of correlations.

Abstract

Ghost imaging was first demonstrated with entangled photon pairs and well-known for its peculiar properties. The signal beam that illuminates the object possesses no spatial resolution, whereas the reference beam, which never interacts with the object, is spatially resolved. Either beam alone cannot retrieve the image, which can only be obtained when the signal and reference beams are correlated. Here we will report a ghost imaging experiment with even more peculiar properties, in which the image can be reconstructed when no photon interacts with the object or even no photon in neither signal nor reference beam. All the photons interacted with the object are discarded. Only the time bins with zero photon are employed to retrieve the image, a process referred to as "ghost imaging with zero photons" hereafter. The reason why ghost image can be retrieved with zero photons is jointly determined by photon-number projection measurement and photon statistics of thermal light. The results are helpful to resolve the debate on the physics of ghost imaging and understand the relation between quantum and classical correlations.