Abstract
If a picture tells a thousand words, then we might ask ourselves how many photons does it take to form a picture? In terms of the transmission of the picture information, then the multiple degrees of freedom (e.g., wavelength, polarization, and spatial mode) of the photon mean that high amounts of information can be encoded such that the many pixel values of an image can, in principle, be communicated by a single photon. However, the number of photons required to transmit the image information is not necessarily, at least technically, the same as the number of photons required to image an object.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 260504 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 116 |
| Issue number | 26 |
| Early online date | 29 Jun 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Jul 2020 |
Funding
We wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) QuantIC (No. EP/M01326X/1) and the H2020 European Research Council (ERC) (TWISTS, No. 340507). P.-A.M. acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust through the Research Project Grant (No. ECF-2018-634), and of the Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Leadership Fellowship Scheme. T.G. acknowledges the financial support from the UK EPSRC (No. EP/N509668/1) and from the Professor Jim Gatheral quantum technology studentship.
Keywords
- pixel values
- image