Abstract

The point-spread function of an optical system determines its optical resolution for both spatial and temporal imaging. For spatial imaging, it is given by a Fourier transform of the pupil function of the system. For temporal imaging based on nonlinear optical processes, such as sum-frequency generation or four-wave mixing, the point-spread function is related to the waveform of the pump wave by a nonlinear transformation. We compare the point-spread functions of three temporal imaging schemes: sum-frequency generation, co-propagating four-wave mixing, and counter-propagating four-wave mixing, and demonstrate that the last scheme provides the best temporal resolution. Our results are valid for both quantum and classical temporal imaging.

© 2018 Chinese Laser Press

Quantum temporal imaging by four-wave mixing

Junheng Shi, Giuseppe Patera, Mikhail I. Kolobov, and Shensheng Han
Opt. Lett. 42(16) 3121-3124 (2017)

Quantum temporal imaging of antibunching

Junheng Shi, Giuseppe Patera, Dmitri B. Horoshko, and Mikhail I. Kolobov
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 37(12) 3741-3753 (2020)

From quantum to classical images

A. Gatti, L.A. Lugiato, Gian-Luca Oppo, Richard Martin, P. Di Trapani, and A. Berzanskis
Opt. Express 1(1) 21-30 (1997)

Temporal imaging with squeezed light

Giuseppe Patera and Mikhail I. Kolobov
Opt. Lett. 40(6) 1125-1128 (2015)

Picosecond-resolution single-photon time lens for temporal mode quantum processing

Chaitali Joshi, Ben M. Sparkes, Alessandro Farsi, Thomas Gerrits, Varun Verma, Sven Ramelow, Sae Woo Nam, and Alexander L. Gaeta
Optica 9(4) 364-373 (2022)