Quantum Imaging

With respect to the classical area of imaging, the field of Quantum Imaging (QI) aims to devise novel techniques for optical imaging and parallel information processing at the quantum level, by exploiting the quantum nature of light and the intrinsic parallelism of optical signals. As a matter of fact, the cross-section of a broad-area radiation beam offers the possibility for multichannel configuration, i.e. the availability of several “quantum” channels, each corresponding to a small area in the section. For example, in each of these independent regions the light may be squeezed, or there may be quantum entanglement between pair of channels. Essentially this approach paves the way to parallel quantum information processing, basically different from the sequential configuration which characterizes, for instance, most schemes of quantum cryptography, in which one detects one photon (or one photon pair) at a time. Needless to say, such a parallel configuration allows for notably increasing the information capacity of the system.