Photon-sparse microscopy: Trans-wavelength ghost imaging

Ghost imaging systems use down-conversion sources that produce twin output beams of position-correlated photons to produce an image of an object using photons that did not interact with the object. One of these beams illuminates the object and is detected by a single pixel detector while the image information is recovered from the second, spatially correlated, beam. We utilize this technique to obtain images of objects probed with 1.5 mu m photons whilst developing the image using a highly efficient, low-noise, photon-counting camera detecting the correlated photons at 460nm. The efficient transfer of the image information from infrared illumination to visible detection wavelengths and the ability to count single-photons allows the acquisition of an image while illuminating the object with an optical power density of only 100 pJ cm(-2) s(-1). We apply image reconstruction techniques based on compressive sensing to reconstruct our images from data sets containing far fewer photons than conventionally required. This wavelength-transforming ghost imaging technique has potential for the imaging of light-sensitive specimens or where covert operation is desired.