Quantum holography with undetected light

Holography exploits the interference of a light field reflected/transmitted from an object with a reference beam to obtain a reconstruction of the spatial shape of the object. Classical holography techniques have been very successful in diverse areas such as microscopy, manufacturing technology, and basic science. However, detection constraints for wavelengths outside the visible range restrict the applications for imaging and sensing in general. For overcoming these detection limitations, we implement phase-shifting holography with nonclassical states of light, where we exploit quantum interference between two-photon probability amplitudes in a nonlinear interferometer. We demonstrate that it allows retrieving the spatial shape (amplitude and phase) of the photons transmitted/reflected from the object and thus obtaining an image of the object despite those photons are never detected. Moreover, there is no need to use a well-characterized reference beam, since the two-photon scheme already makes use of one of the photons as reference for holography.

Automated summary

Holography uses interference of a light field to reconstruct the spatial shape of an object, but traditional methods are limited by detection constraints outside the visible range. By implementing phase-shifting holography with nonclassical states of light and quantum interference between two-photon probability amplitudes, it is possible to overcome these limitations and retrieve the spatial shape of transmitted/reflected photons from the object.