Spatially Shaped Photons for Single-pixel Quantum Imaging

Single-pixel imaging is a method for obtaining an image without multi-pixel sensors. In this method, an object of interest is illuminated by light that has specifically designed spatio-temporal shape, while a single-pixel detector measures the total amount of reflected or transmitted light. The key prerequisite of this method is the ability to create a given spatio-temporal light shape, which becomes especially challenging at the level of single photons. The current photon shaping procedures cannot be directly applied to single-pixel imaging due to the limited generation rate or the need for post-processing. In this work, we propose a highly efficient method for generating arbitrary single-photon shapes without post-selection. We exploit the heralded single-photon shaping approach, and study the effect of the modal properties of a single-photon detection on the characteristics of the heralded photon. We find that the use of multi-mode detection allows to increase the heralding probability of shaped photons proportionally to the number of detected modes while keeping the shape intact, which makes it highly desirable for single-pixel quantum imaging.