The Physics of the "Ghost Camera": Towards Practical "Ghost" Imaging

Abstract

The main result of this dissertations is an experimental demonstration of a nonclassical imaging mechanism with super-resolving power beyond the Rayleigh limit, referred to as "ghost camera.'' This imaging mechanism produces a resolved image from the correlation measurement of the intensity fluctuations of thermal fields even when the classical image is completely blurred out due to the use of a small imaging lens. In addition, because the image is produced by intensity fluctuation correlations, it is also insensitive to turbulence. Both of these features are ideally suited to long distance imaging, such as satellite imaging, which often image through turbulence or other adverse atmospheric conditions and requires large diameter camera lenses to achieve high image resolution. This ghost camera is also capable of performing 3D imaging, due to its ability to select different spatial frequencies of an image. Preliminary results demonstrating images containing different spatial phases are included, as well as a mathematical theory modeling the ghost camera.