Fast correlated-photon imaging enhanced by deep learning

Quantum imaging using photon pairs with strong quantum correlations has been harnessed to bring quantum advantages to various fields from biological imaging to range finding. Such inherent non-classical properties support the extraction of more valid signals to build photon-limited images, even in low-light conditions where the shot noise becomes dominant as light decreases to a single-photon level. Numerical optimization algorithms are possible but require thousands of photon-sparse frames, and they are thus unavailable in real time. We demonstrate fast correlated-photon imaging enhanced by deep learning as an intelligent computational strategy to discover a deeper structure in big data. Our work verifies that a convolutional neural network can efficiently solve inverse imaging problems associated with strong shot noise and background noise (electronic noise, scattered light). Our results show that we can overcome limitations due to the trade-off between imaging speed and image quality by pushing the low-light imaging technique to the single-photon level in real time, which enables deep-learning-enhanced quantum imaging for real-life applications. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

Quantum imaging using photon pairs with strong correlations has been applied in various fields, enabling the building of photon-limited images in low-light conditions. Deep learning optimization algorithms efficiently solve inverse imaging problems related to shot noise and background noise. This research pushes low-light imaging techniques to the single-photon level in real time, allowing for deep-learning-enhanced quantum imaging.