Single photon imaging and sensing of obscured objects around the corner

Abstract

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) optical imaging and sensing of objects imply new capabilities valuable to autonomous technology, machine vision, and other applications. Existing NLOS imaging methods rely heavily on the prowess of computational algorithms to reconstruct the images from weak triply scattered signals. Here, we introduce a new approach to NLOS imaging and sensing using the picosecond gated single photon detection generated by quantum frequency conversion. With exceptional signal isolation, this approach can reliably sense obscured objects around the corner and substantially simplify the data processing needed for position retrieval and surface profiling. For each pixel, only $4 \times 10^{-3}$ photons are needed to be detected per pulse to position and profile occluded objects with high resolution. Furthermore, the vibration frequencies of different objects can be resolved by analyzing the photon number fluctuation received within in a ten-picosecond window, allowing NLOS acoustic sensing. Our results highlight the prospect of photon efficient NLOS imaging and sensing for real-world applications.