TY - JOUR
T1 - How many photons does it take to form an image?
AU - Johnson, Steven D.
AU - Moreau, Paul Antoine
AU - Gregory, Thomas
AU - Padgett, Miles J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) QuantIC (No. EP/M01326X/1) and the H2020 European Research Council (ERC) (TWISTS, No. 340507). P.-A.M. acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust through the Research Project Grant (No. ECF-2018-634), and of the Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Leadership Fellowship Scheme. T.G. acknowledges the financial support from the UK EPSRC (No. EP/N509668/1) and from the Professor Jim Gatheral quantum technology studentship.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Author(s).
PY - 2020/6/29
Y1 - 2020/6/29
N2 - If a picture tells a thousand words, then we might ask ourselves how many photons does it take to form a picture? In terms of the transmission of the picture information, then the multiple degrees of freedom (e.g., wavelength, polarization, and spatial mode) of the photon mean that high amounts of information can be encoded such that the many pixel values of an image can, in principle, be communicated by a single photon. However, the number of photons required to transmit the image information is not necessarily, at least technically, the same as the number of photons required to image an object. Therefore, another equally important question is how many photons does it take to measure an unknown image?
AB - If a picture tells a thousand words, then we might ask ourselves how many photons does it take to form a picture? In terms of the transmission of the picture information, then the multiple degrees of freedom (e.g., wavelength, polarization, and spatial mode) of the photon mean that high amounts of information can be encoded such that the many pixel values of an image can, in principle, be communicated by a single photon. However, the number of photons required to transmit the image information is not necessarily, at least technically, the same as the number of photons required to image an object. Therefore, another equally important question is how many photons does it take to measure an unknown image?
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088393585&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85088393585&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/5.0009493
DO - 10.1063/5.0009493
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85088393585
SN - 0003-6951
VL - 116
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
IS - 26
M1 - 260504
ER -