Experimental investigation of the role of spatial correlations in optical integration with heralded single photons

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate optical integration using heralded single photons and explore the influence of spatial correlations between photons on this process. Specifically, we experimentally harness the transverse spatial degrees of freedom of light within an optical processing framework based on heralded single photons. The integration is performed over binary phase patterns encoded via a phase-only spatial light modulator, with polarization serving as an auxiliary degree of freedom. Our findings reveal a distinct contrast in how spatial correlations affect image analysis: spatially uncorrelated photons are more effective at capturing the global features of an image encoded in the modulator, whereas spatially correlated photons exhibit enhanced sensitivity to local image details. Importantly, the optical integration scheme presented here bears a strong conceptual and operational resemblance to the DQC1 (Deterministic Quantum Computation with One Qubit) model. This connection underscores the potential of our approach for quantum-enhanced information processing, even in regimes where entanglement is minimal or absent.