Snapshot hyperspectral imaging with quantum correlated photons

Abstract

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has a wide range of applications from environmental monitoring to biotechnology. Current snapshot HSI techniques all require a trade-off between spatial and spectral resolution and are thus unable to achieve high resolutions in both simultaneously. Additionally, the techniques are resource inefficient with most of the photons lost through spectral filtering. Here, we demonstrate a snapshot HSI technique utilizing the strong spectro-temporal correlations inherent in entangled photons using a modified quantum ghost spectroscopy system, where the target is directly imaged with one photon and the spectral information gained through ghost spectroscopy from the partner photon. As only a few rows of pixels near the edge of the camera are used for the spectrometer, almost no spatial resolution is sacrificed for spectral. Also since no spectral filtering is required, all photons contribute to the HSI process making the technique much more resource efficient.