Advancing quantum imaging: Electrical tunability enabled by versatile liquid crystals

Optical image processing techniques like edge detection demonstrate unique superiority in various applications. Synergistically combined with heralded quantum imaging, they have notable potential for identifying light-sensitive samples under minimal illumination. However, present schemes usually lack the capability to control the quantum imaging function dynamically. Here, we introduce versatile liquid crystals to realize heralded single-photon imaging and electrically tunable multimode switching. On the basis of the bichiral cholesteric liquid crystal modulator, different morphology information of the target can be extracted with a high signal-to-noise ratio, including the entire shape and its fine outline. The nematic liquid crystal, leveraging its electrically tunable properties, is explored to select specific polarizations of heralded single photons, enabling dynamic remote switching in trimode quantum imaging. To further improve the time efficiency, an ultrafast remote switching is presented on the basis of the appealing ferroelectric liquid crystals. This work supplies a unique imaging platform for photon-limited scenarios and reveals the unprecedented possibilities of soft matters in quantum information processing.