Visibility enhancement in two-dimensional lensless ghost imaging with true thermal light

We report an experimental demonstration of two-dimensional(2D) lensless ghost imaging with true thermal light. An electrodeless discharge lamp with a higher light intensity than the hollow cathode lamp used before is employed as a light source. The main problem encountered by the 2D lensless ghost imaging with true thermal light is that its coherence time is much shorter than the resolution time of the detection system. To overcome this difficulty we derive a method based on the relationship between the true and measured values of the second-order optical intensity correlation, by which means the visibility of the ghost image can be dramatically enhanced. This method would also be suitable for ghost imaging with natural sunlight.     

Influence of the source's energy fluctuation on computational ghost imaging and effective correction approaches

We investigate the influence of the source's energy fluctuation on both computational ghost imaging and computational ghost imaging via sparsity constraint,and if the reconstruction quality will decrease with the increase of the source's energy fluctuation.In order to overcome the problem of image degradation,a correction approach against the source's energy fluctuation is proposed by recording the source's fluctuation with a monitor before modulation and correcting the echo signal or the intensity of computed reference light field with the data recorded by the monitor.Both the numerical simulation and experimental results demonstrate that computational ghost imaging via sparsity constraint can be enhanced by correcting the echo signal or the intensity of computed reference light field,while only correcting the echo signal is valid for computational ghost imaging.     

Effects of light intensity on reflective ghost imaging

In this letter, we analyze the effects of light intensity find that the brightness of reflective ghost image can on reflective ghost imaging with thermal source. We be changed by modulating the light intensity of the source and the splitting ratio of the beam splitter. The signal-to-noise ratio will be improved by increa.sing the light intensity of the source. More important, we can obtain the reflective ghost image with high image quality by adopting a low light intensity signal beam and a high light intensity reference beam, which is better than the classical optical imaging, because it can reduce the effects of light on the object.     

Ghost imaging and ghost interference with pseudo-thermal light: Mode-separation by pure software processing

We report on a new experiment in which ghost imaging and ghost interference with quasi-thermal light are simultaneously obtained from the same set of experimental reference patterns. By sliding the mask along the object arm in a continuous way, one can see imaging and diffraction patterns to come to light and fade out in opposite directions.     

基于稀疏阵赝热光系统的强度关联成像研究

强度关联成像在近几年取得很大的突破,其应用价值越来越明显。以随机涨落的热光作为光源是强度关联成像的前提。目前常使用激光穿过旋转的毛玻璃产生赝热光。鉴于使用毛玻璃产生赝热光的局限性,提出了使用稀疏阵独立子光源产生赝热光,并在这种光源结构下讨论了基于线性关联算法的强度关联成像和基于稀疏约束非线性算法的强度关联成像的异同。     

Quantum and classical coincidence imaging

Coincidence, or ghost, imaging is a technique that uses two correlated optical fields to form an image of an object. In this work we identify aspects of coincidence imaging which can be performed with classically correlated light sources and aspects which require quantum entanglement. We find that entangled photons allow high-contrast, high-resolution imaging to be performed at any distance from the light source. We demonstrate this fact by forming ghost images in the near and far fields of an entangled photon source, noting that the product of the resolutions of these images is a factor of 3 better than that which is allowed by classical diffraction theory.     

Phase modulation pseudocolor encoding ghost imaging

We present a ghost imaging scheme that can obtain a good pseudocolor image of black-and-white objects.The essential idea is to use a multi-wavelength thermal light source and the phase modulation pseudocolor encoding technique,which overcomes the disadvantages of other methods involved spatial filtering.Therefore,the pseudocolor ghost image achieved by this imaging scheme is better than that obtained by other methods in terms of brightness,color,and signal-tonoise ratio.     

Lensless two-color ghost imaging from the perspective of coherent-mode representation

The coherent-mode representation theory is firstly used to analyze lensless two-color ghost imaging. A quite complicated expression about the point-spread function(PSF) needs to be given to analyze which wavelength has a stronger affect on imaging quality when the usual integral representation theory is used to ghost imaging. Unlike this theory, the coherent-mode representation theory shows that imaging quality depends crucially on the distribution of the decomposition coefficients of the object imaged in a two-color ghost imaging. The analytical expression of the decomposition coefficients of the object is unconcerned with the wavelength of the light used in the reference arm, but has relevance with the wavelength in the object arm. In other words, imaging quality of two-color ghost imaging depends primarily on the wavelength of the light illuminating the object. Our simulation results also demonstrate this conclusion.     

基于反射型物体的高阶非相干热光源关联成像性能研究

现有基于热光源的关联成像主要是针对透射型物体,这样可简化关联成像分析过程。然而对于成像的实际应用,比如遥感技术,反射型物体将具有更大的实用价值。基于非相干均亮的热光源,对反射型物体的高阶关联成像进行了研究,推导出其高阶反射关联成像的关联函数、可见度及信噪比的解析式;对比二阶反射关联成像,讨论阶数对关联成像性能的影响。研究结果表明,对于反射型物体的关联成像,随着阶数的增加,成像的可见度得到提高,但信噪比下降,同时能够通过增加测量次数增加成像的信噪比。     

Role of photon statistics of light source in ghost imaging

The theory of ghost imaging is examined by taking into account the quantum state of the light source explicitly. It is proved that ghost images can be obtained by any light source that is non-Poissonian. It is also shown that ghost images with unity visibility can be achieved with either quantum or classical correlation.     

Lensless ghost imaging through the strongly scattering medium

Lensless ghost imaging has attracted much interest in recent years due to its profound physics and potential applications. In this paper we report studies of the robust properties of the lensless ghost imaging system with a pseudo-thermal light source in a strongly scattering medium. The effects of the positions of the strong medium on the ghost imaging are investigated. In the lensless ghost imaging system, a pseudo-thermal light is split into two correlated beams by a beam splitter. One beam goes to a charge-coupled detector camera, labeled as CCD2. The other beam goes to an object and then is collected in another charge-coupled detector camera, labeled as CCD1, which serves as a bucket detector. When the strong medium, a pane of ground glass disk, is placed between the object and CCD1, the bucket detector, the quality of ghost imaging is barely affected and a good image could still be obtained. The quality of the ghost imaging can also be maintained, even when the ground glass is rotating, which is the strongest scattering medium so far. However, when the strongly scattering medium is present in the optical path from the light source to CCD2 or the object, the lensless ghost imaging system hardly retrieves the image of the object. A theoretical analysis in terms of the second-order correlation function is also provided.     

强度涨落在热光鬼成像中的作用

热光鬼成像的图像质量在实际应用中具有重要作用. 通过理论分析和数值模拟, 发现光场的强度涨落程度会影响热光鬼成像的对比度, 基于此, 提出可以通过调节热光场的平均强度和强度波动的方差来提高成像对比度, 并且研究了这一方法对成像信噪比的影响. 将这种方法与另一种提高成像对比度的方法——高阶鬼成像进行了对比, 所得结果将有助于提高对热光鬼成像的理解. 关键词： 鬼成像 强度涨落 对比度 信噪比     

Resolution and visibility of two-color pseudothermal lensless ghost imaging

Two-color (or nondegenerate-wavelength) lensless ghost imaging using pseudothermal light source is investigated theoretically by use of classical optical coherence theory. We find that for two-color pseudothermal lensless ghost imaging the visibility and resolution is determined by (Δ) the product of the wavelength and the corresponding path length rather than the wavelength for each path or the path length. We also confirm our theoretical conclusion by numerical simulations. The result shows we must make a trade-off between resolution and visibility in devise practical experiments, as the resolution of the imaging can be improved by decreasing Δ but with visibility getting poor, and vice versa.     

内掩式透射地基日冕仪中杂光鬼像的消除

为了消除杂散光对日冕仪成像质量的影响,分析了工作波段为530～555 nm的内掩式透射地基日冕仪（其视场为±1.1～3R⊙,分辨率为13.5μm,口径为120 mm,系统F数为8.2）物镜的多次反射形成的鬼像。基于鬼像形成原理,完成建模模拟,提出了结构性遮拦措施,并通过实验论证了遮拦结构对鬼像有良好的遮拦效果,同时验证了鬼像的光强和物镜边缘衍射光基本一致。实验还显示：鬼像的尺寸和模拟基本一致,直径均约为0.9 mm。消除鬼像后,内掩式透射日冕仪消杂光能力和成像质量进一步提高,实现了对日冕的有效观测。     

Imaging through aberrating media by computational ghost imaging with incoherent light

We demonstrate a series of experiments on imaging through both stationary aberrating media and moving aberrating media by computational ghost imaging(CGI).An incoherent LED light source is used instead of the common pseudothermal light source(laser light passing through a rotating ground glass).A digital micromirror device is used as a simple spatial light modulator to perform CGI.Moreover,a digital filtering method is introduced to improve imaging quality through moving aberrating media.This imaging modality may have potential applications in medicine and astronomy.     

Cross spectral purity and its influence on ghost imaging experiments

Pseudo-thermal light has been widely used in ghost imaging experiments. In order to understand the differences between the pseudo-thermal source and thermal source, we propose a method to investigate whether a light source has cross spectral purity (CSP), and experimentally measure the cross spectral properties of the pseudo-thermal light source in near-field and far-field zones. Moreover we present a theoretical analysis of the cross spectral influence on ghost imaging.     

Ghost Imaging with High Visibility Using Classical Light Source

We experimentally demonstrate a novel ghost imaging experiment utilizing a classical light source,capable of resolving objects with a high visibility.The experimental results show that our scheme can indeed realize ghost imaging with high visibility for a relatively complicated object composed of three near-ellipse-shaped holes with different dimensions.In our experiment,the largest hole is ~36 times of the smallest one in area.Each of the three holes exhibits high-visibility in excess of 80%.The high visibility and high spatial-resolution advantages of this technique could have applications in remote sensing.     

Experimental Investigation of Quality of Lensless Ghost Imaging with Pseudo-Thermal Light

Factors influencing the quality of lensless ghost imaging are investigated. According to the experimental results, we find that the imaging quality is determined by the number of independent sub light sources on the imaging plane of the reference arm. A qualitative picture based on advanced wave optics is presented to explain the physics behind the experimental phenomena. The present results will be helpful to provide a basis for improving the quality of ghost imaging systems in future works.     

Robust Ghost Imaging Based on Degenerate Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion

In traditional ghost imaging, the entangled photon pairs produced from the spontaneous parametric down conversion(SPDC) process are used. There is an intrinsic disadvantage that the utilization efficiency of the photon pairs is very low. Inasmuch as all the correlated photon pairs produced by the degenerate SPDC process can be used to record the image of an object, the ghost imaging scheme we present here has a higher utilization efficiency of the photon pairs. We also investigate the robustness of our experimental scheme. The experimental results show that, no matter whether the photon-pair source is two light cones or two beam-like spots, the clear image of the object can be obtained. The slight rotation of the nonlinear crystal has no influence on the imaging quality.Our experimental results also demonstrate that when the part of the photon-pair source in the signal path or the idler path is blocked by unwanted things, the clear ghost image of the object can still be recorded.