Low-light-level imaging techniques have application in many diverse fields, ranging from biological sciences to security. We demonstrate a single-photon imaging system based on a time-gated inten- sified CCD (ICCD) camera in which the image of an object can be inferred from very few detected photons. We show that a ghost-imaging configuration, where the image is obtained from photons that have never interacted with the object, is a useful approach for obtaining images with high signal-to-noise ratios. The use of heralded single-photons ensures that the background counts can be virtually eliminated from the recorded images. By applying techniques of compressed sensing and associated image reconstruction, we obtain high-quality images of the object from raw data comprised of fewer than one detected photon per image pixel.

翻译：低光成像技术在生物科学到安全等许多不同领域都有应用。我们展示了一种单一光子成像系统,其基础是经过时间调整的强化CCD(ICCD)摄像头,其中可以从很少检测到的光子中推断物体的图像。我们显示,从从未与物体发生相互作用的光子中获取图像的幽灵成像配置,是获取信号到噪音比率高的图像的有用方法。使用预告的单光子成像系统可以确保从所录的图像中几乎消除背景数。通过应用压缩感测技术和相关图像重建,我们从每张图像像素中不到一个检测到光子的原始数据中获取了该物体的高质量图像。