# Advancing quantum imaging: Electrical tunability enabled by versatile liquid crystals

## TL;DR

This paper introduces liquid crystals for quantum imaging that can be electrically controlled to extract detailed image information with minimal light.

## Contribution

The use of versatile liquid crystals enables electrically tunable multimode heralded single-photon imaging for quantum applications.

## Key findings

- Bichiral cholesteric liquid crystals extract morphology information with high signal-to-noise ratio.
- Nematic liquid crystals allow dynamic remote switching in trimode quantum imaging via polarization selection.
- Ferroelectric liquid crystals enable ultrafast remote switching for improved time efficiency.

## Abstract

Optical image processing techniques like edge detection demonstrate unique superiority in various applications. Synergistically combined with heralded quantum imaging, they have notable potential for identifying light-sensitive samples under minimal illumination. However, present schemes usually lack the capability to control the quantum imaging function dynamically. Here, we introduce versatile liquid crystals to realize heralded single-photon imaging and electrically tunable multimode switching. On the basis of the bichiral cholesteric liquid crystal modulator, different morphology information of the target can be extracted with a high signal-to-noise ratio, including the entire shape and its fine outline. The nematic liquid crystal, leveraging its electrically tunable properties, is explored to select specific polarizations of heralded single photons, enabling dynamic remote switching in trimode quantum imaging. To further improve the time efficiency, an ultrafast remote switching is presented on the basis of the appealing ferroelectric liquid crystals. This work supplies a unique imaging platform for photon-limited scenarios and reveals the unprecedented possibilities of soft matters in quantum information processing.

Versatile liquid crystals enable the multimode heralded single-photon imaging with an electrically tunable remote switch.