Imaging with quantum states of light

The production of pairs of entangled photons simply by focusing a laser beam onto a crystal with a nonlinear optical response was used to test quantum mechanics and to open new approaches in imaging. The development of the latter was enabled by the emergence of single-photon-sensitive cameras that are able to characterize spatial correlations and high-dimensional entanglement. Thereby, new techniques emerged, such as ghost imaging of objects — in which the quantum correlations between photons reveal the image from photons that have never interacted with the object — or imaging with undetected photons by using nonlinear interferometers. In addition, quantum approaches in imaging can also lead to an improvement in the performance of conventional imaging systems. These improvements can be obtained by means of image contrast, resolution enhancement that exceeds the classical limit and acquisition of sub-shot-noise phase or amplitude images. In this Review, we discuss the application of quantum states of light for advanced imaging techniques.