Correlation Plenoptic Imaging With Entangled Photons

Francesco Pepe,Francesco Di Lena,Giuliano Scarcelli,Milena D’Angelo,Augusto Garuccio

doi:10.3390/technologies4020017

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.

Highlights

IntroductionKnown as light-field or integral imaging, is a novel optical imaging modality [1]
Plenoptic imaging, known as light-field or integral imaging, is a novel optical imaging modality [1]
We have recently proposed a novel approach to plenoptic imaging, named correlation plenoptic imaging (CPI), which exploits the spatio-temporal second-order correlation typical of chaotic light sources to beat the strong coupling between spatial and angular resolution, as imposed to standard plenoptic imaging devices [18,19]

Summary

Introduction

Known as light-field or integral imaging, is a novel optical imaging modality [1]. Several images of the scene, one for each propagation direction of light within the scene, are acquired in a single shot On one hand, such images correspond to the required viewpoints enabling the three-dimensional reconstruction of the scene. We show that the peculiar momentum-momentum and position-position correlations typical of such EPR entangled systems [24,25] can be simultaneously exploited to substantially weaken the connection between spatial resolution and depth of field typical of standard plenoptic imaging. The basic idea of CPI is to replace with a single lens and two separate sensors, the complex system composed of the microlens array followed by a single sensor; spatial and angular measurements are physically decoupled, enabling a significant weakening of the inverse proportionality between spatial and angular resolution characterizing standard plenoptic imaging devices.

Background

Plenoptic Properties of the Correlation Function and Refocusing Capability

Simulation of CPI With Entangled Photons From SPDC

Discussion

Conclusions and Outlook