Noise-tolerant single photon sensitive three-dimensional imager

Active imagers capable of reconstructing 3-dimensional (3D) scenes in the presence of strong background noise are highly desirable for many sensing and imaging applications. A key to this capability is the time-resolving photon detection that distinguishes true signal photons from the noise. To this end, quantum parametric mode sorting (QPMS) can achieve signal to noise exceeding by far what is possible with typical linear optics filters, with outstanding performance in isolating temporally and spectrally overlapping noise. Here, we report a QPMS-based 3D imager with exceptional detection sensitivity and noise tolerance. With only 0.0006 detected signal photons per pulse, we reliably reconstruct the 3D profile of an obscured scene, despite 34-fold spectral-temporally overlapping noise photons, within the 6 ps detection window (amounting to 113,000 times noise per 20 ns detection period). Our results highlight a viable approach to suppress background noise and measurement errors of single photon imager operation in high-noise environments. Imagers capable of reconstructing three-dimensional scenes in the presence of strong background noise are desirable for many remote sensing and imaging applications. Here, the authors report an imager operating in photon-starved and noise-polluted environments through quantum parametric mode sorting.

[1]  Axel Bergmann,et al.  Advanced time-correlated single photon counting technique for spectroscopy and imaging of biological systems , 2006, International Conference on Photonics and Imaging in Biology and Medicine.

[2]  Christine Silberhorn,et al.  Tailoring nonlinear processes for quantum optics with pulsed temporal-mode encodings , 2018, 1803.04316.

[3]  Werner Kozek,et al.  Time-frequency projection filters and time-frequency signal expansions , 1994, IEEE Trans. Signal Process..

[4]  S. Achilefu,et al.  Fluorescence lifetime measurements and biological imaging. , 2010, Chemical reviews.

[5]  David Tyndall,et al.  A study of pile-up in integrated time-correlated single photon counting systems. , 2013, The Review of scientific instruments.

[6]  Brent Schwarz.  Mapping the world in 3D: LIDAR , 2010 .

[7]  Vivek K Goyal,et al.  Photon-efficient imaging with a single-photon camera , 2016, Nature Communications.

[8]  Brent Schwarz,et al.  LIDAR: Mapping the world in 3D , 2010 .

[9]  Aswin C. Sankaranarayanan,et al.  Signal Processing Based Pile-up Compensation for Gated Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes , 2018, 1806.07437.

[10]  Klaus C. J. Dietmayer,et al.  Deep Active Learning for Efficient Training of a LiDAR 3D Object Detector , 2019, 2019 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV).

[11]  M. Raymer,et al.  Engineering temporal-mode-selective frequency conversion in nonlinear optical waveguides: from theory to experiment. , 2017, Optics express.

[12]  Gordon Wetzstein,et al.  Sub-picosecond photon-efficient 3D imaging using single-photon sensors , 2018, Scientific Reports.

[13]  Daniele Faccio,et al.  A trillion frames per second: the techniques and applications of light-in-flight photography , 2018, Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society.

[14]  Christine Silberhorn,et al.  A quantum pulse gate based on spectrally engineered sum frequency generation. , 2010, Optics express.

[15]  S J B Yoo,et al.  Quantum optical arbitrary waveform manipulation and measurement in real time. , 2014, Optics express.

[16]  Vivek K Goyal,et al.  Quantum-inspired computational imaging , 2018, Science.

[17]  B. Brecht,et al.  Photon temporal modes: a complete framework for quantum information science , 2015, 1504.06251.

[18]  Aongus McCarthy,et al.  Robust Bayesian Target Detection Algorithm for Depth Imaging From Sparse Single-Photon Data , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging.

[19]  Gordon Wetzstein,et al.  Confocal non-line-of-sight imaging based on the light-cone transform , 2018, Nature.

[20]  Yan Zhu,et al.  Photon-limited face image super-resolution based on deep learning. , 2018, Optics express.

[21]  M. Padgett,et al.  3D Computational Imaging with Single-Pixel Detectors , 2013, Science.

[22]  Vivek K. Goyal,et al.  A Few Photons Among Many: Unmixing Signal and Noise for Photon-Efficient Active Imaging , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging.

[23]  R. Raskar,et al.  Recovering three-dimensional shape around a corner using ultrafast time-of-flight imaging , 2012, Nature Communications.

[24]  Pierre Albarede,et al.  A theory of experiment , 2002, ArXiv.

[25]  J Řeháček,et al.  Quantum-Limited Time-Frequency Estimation through Mode-Selective Photon Measurement. , 2018, Physical review letters.

[26]  Vivek K Goyal,et al.  First-Photon Imaging , 2014, Science.

[27]  J. Brock,et al.  The Emerging Role of Lidar Remote Sensing in Coastal Research and Resource Management , 2009 .

[28]  Yu-Ping Huang,et al.  Quantum Parametric Mode Sorting: Beating the Time-Frequency Filtering , 2017, Scientific Reports.

[29]  Robert Henderson,et al.  Detection and tracking of moving objects hidden from view , 2015, Nature Photonics.

[30]  Yu-Ping Huang,et al.  Direct Generation and Detection of Quantum Correlated Photons with 3.2 um Wavelength Spacing , 2017, Scientific Reports.

[31]  Bin Wang,et al.  Single-photon computational 3D imaging at 45  km , 2019, Photonics Research.

[32]  Aongus McCarthy,et al.  Object Depth Profile and Reflectivity Restoration From Sparse Single-Photon Data Acquired in Underwater Environments , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging.

[33]  K. Omasa,et al.  3D lidar imaging for detecting and understanding plant responses and canopy structure. , 2006, Journal of experimental botany.

[34]  Ximing Ren,et al.  High-resolution depth profiling using a range-gated CMOS SPAD quanta image sensor. , 2018, Optics express.

[35]  Yu-Ping Huang,et al.  Mode selective up-conversion detection for LIDAR applications. , 2018, Optics express.

[36]  Vivek K. Goyal,et al.  Dead Time Compensation for High-Flux Ranging , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.

[37]  M. Fejer,et al.  Multidimensional mode-separable frequency conversion for high-speed quantum communication , 2016, 1606.07794.

[38]  Aongus McCarthy,et al.  Three-dimensional single-photon imaging through obscurants. , 2019, Optics express.