Real-time data acquisition for long-distance reflective ghost imaging experiment with thermal light

The ghost imaging is a new field in the research of the quantum nature of light. The long-distance reflective ghost imaging experiment with thermal light is suit for remote sensing with a high practicability. A real-time data acquisition (DAQ) system is presented for the experiment. In the setup, the light from source is separated into signal beam and reference beam. The signal beam which illuminates the target is collected by a bucket detector. The reference beam is directly captured by an area detector. The DAQ system employs a photo-multiplier tube as the bucket detector and a charge-coupled device camera as the area detector. The two detectors separately detect intensity fluctuations of two light beams. Meanwhile, the DAQ system implements high-speed and high-precision data acquisition and data processing to reconstruct the image of the target. The results of electronic tests and experiments show that the DAQ system satisfies the requirements of the experiment.