Metasurface-Assisted Quantum Ghost Discrimination of Polarization Objects

Abstract

We develop a concept of metasurface-assisted ghost imaging for non-local discrimination between a set of polarization objects. The specially designed metasurfaces are incorporated in the imaging system to perform parallel state transformations in general elliptical bases of quantum-entangled or classically-correlated photons. Then, only four or fewer correlation measurements between multiple metasurface outputs and a simple polarization-insensitive bucket detector after the object can allow for the identification of fully or partially transparent polarization elements and their arbitrary orientation angles. We rigorously establish that entangled photon states offer a fundamental advantage compared to classical correlations for a broad class of objects. The approach can find applications for real-time and low-light imaging across diverse spectral regions in dynamic environments.