Fund Project:Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11604243) and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin, China (Grant No. 16JCQNJC01600).
Received Date:01 February 2019
Accepted Date:05 March 2019
Available Online:01 May 2019
Published Online:20 May 2019
Abstract:Different from second-order temporal ghost imaging usually realized by means of second-order correlation measurement, in this paper, we investigate theoretically temporal imaging with temporally thermal light via first-order field correlation based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The paraxial wave equation describing the diffraction of light and the differential equation characterizing the dispersion of light pulse are given. Based on the similarity between these equations, the duality between the paraxial diffraction of the light in the spatial domain and the dispersion of the temporal narrow-band pulse in the dispersive medium (i.e. the space-time duality) is obtained, and the impulse response functions in the time domain for several optical systems are also presented. Then in terms of the space-time duality, we design the scheme for temporal imaging via first-order thermal field correlation based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and obtain the intensity expression for first-order temporal imaging according to the temporal impulse response functions, and discuss the influences of the source pulse width and coherence time on the image visibility and resolution. The result shows that the temporal signal can be reconstructed through temporal first-order temporal imaging. Furthermore, when the source’s coherence time is fixed, the image visibility decreases as the pulse width increases. However, the image resolution increases. When the source’s pulse width is fixed, the image visibility increases as the coherence time increases. And yet the image resolution decreases. Specially, when the source’s pulse width is 100 ps and the coherence time is 0.5 ps, the image quality (taking both the visibility and resolution into account) of a temporally rectangular object is satisfactory. In the simulation, the distance and width of the temporal rectangular object are 20 ps and 8 ps, respectively. It is shown that there is a dilemma between the visibility and resolution of first-order temporal imaging which is similar to the result of second-order ghost imaging. Our result discussed herein could be valuable in the reconstruction and detection of temporal signal via first-order temporal ghost imaging with temporally thermal light. Keywords:intensity correlation/ first-order field correlation/ ghost imaging/ dispersion
假设时域物体为具有一定间隔的两个矩形波信号, 矩形波间隔和宽度分别为20和8 ps, 选取色散介质的群延迟色散参量为$\varPhi_0 = 0, \ \varPhi_1 = \varPhi_2 = $$\varPhi_{{\rm f}_1} = 2\varPhi_{{\rm f}_2} = 50\; {\rm ps}^2 $. 首先分析保持光源脉冲相干时间不变, 改变光源脉冲宽度的成像结果. 根据(18)式, 模拟得到了光源脉冲相干时间为$ T_{\rm c} $ = 0.5 ps, 脉冲宽度$ T_0 $分别为5, 10, 50和100 ps条件下的成像结果, 如图2所示. 根据时域物体成像质量的可见度$ V=\dfrac{{{\left\langle I \right\rangle }_{\rm {max}}}-{{\left\langle I \right\rangle }_{\rm {min}}}}{{{\left\langle I \right\rangle }_{\rm {max}}}+{{\left\langle I \right\rangle }_{\rm {min}}}} $, 图3给出了光源相干时间$ T_{\rm c}= $0.5 ps 条件下, 成像可见度随光源脉冲宽度的变化曲线. 由图2可以看出, 随着脉冲宽度的增加, 时域物体的图像可见度逐渐降低但分辨率逐渐变好, 即时域物体的矩形波逐渐显现. 由图3可以看出, 在保持光源脉冲相干时间不变时, 随光源脉冲宽度的增加, 成像可见度逐渐减小, 这与空间域二阶鬼成像的结果类似[42]. 这是因为当光源脉冲宽度大于时域物体信号持续时间时, 场关联才能完整展现物体的信息. 图 2 光源相干时间为0.5 ps, 光源脉冲宽度宽度分别为5, 10, 50和100 ps条件下的关联像 Figure2. The correlated images with different pulse widths of the source 5, 10, 50 and 100 ps, for the source’s coherence time 0.5 ps
图 3 光源相干时间Tc为0.5 ps时, 成像可见度随光源脉冲宽度的变化曲线 Figure3. The imaging visibility as a function of the source’s pulse width for the source’s coherence time 0.5 ps