Single Photon and Quantum Enhanced Imaging

This PhD will examine key issues around single photon and quantum enhanced imaging. For example, Ge-on-Si single-photon detectors developed by Heriot-Watt have recently become a key emerging single-photon detector, offering an alternative for InGaAs/InP detector technology, whilst encompassing all the integration potential of silicon. These detectors will be applied to key application areas such as single-photon depth imaging. Mosaic filters can offer key advantages in terms of rapid multi-spectral and hyperspectral imaging, and this project will examine their integration into single-photon technology for active and passive imaging, particularly in the short wave infrared. The potential of microlenses for efficiency enhancement will be examined and the first attempt at laser written microlenses on single-photon focal plane arrays will be attempted. The project will use these technological advances in single-photon image technology to address three-dimensional imaging and quantum-enhanced imaging, including ghost imaging. The project will utilise advanced image processing algorithms for image reconstruction with these sparse photon measurements.