Quantum ghost imaging of undisturbed live plants

The near infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectral regions contain absorption features that can identify specific molecular bonds and chemical species in a sample. For example, lignan and proteins in plants have specific absorption signatures in the NIR. However, because detectors are inefficient in the NIR and MIR, infrared spectroscopy requires high light levels to overcome detector limitations. Cameras in particular do not perform well in this spectral range, and microscopy methods such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) typically rely on scanning confocal arrangements with single-element detectors to spatially map chemical information. To overcome these limitations, we have developed and exploited a new quantum ghost imaging microscope for obtaining absorption measurements in the NIR without the need of scanning or high light intensities. We report on the use of a novel detector-NCam-in quantum ghost imaging using non-degenerate photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). NCam records single-photon arrival events with 1/4100 ps resolution, enhancing the correlation window of SPDC pairs over previous wide-field ghost imaging by 30-fold. This permits ghost imaging of living and intact plant samples at light levels lower than what the plants would experience from starlight. For photosynthesizing organisms, this low-light imaging method enables the study of plants without disturbing or eliciting responses from the plant due to the measurement itself.