“A revelation of how photoreceptive cells in the eye distinguish between different light sources could pave the way for a novel class of optical devices,” reports Science Digest. “Millions of years of evolution have molded our eyes into highly sensitive optical detectors, surpassing even many human-made devices. Now, Leonid Krivitsky and his co-workers at the A*Star Data Storage Institute and the A*Star Institute of Medical Biology, Singapore, have shown that the photoreceptor cells found in the retina are even sensitive to the statistical properties of light. This ability could be harnessed in 'bioquantum' interfaces, a novel class of optical devices that use biological systems to detect the quantum nature of light” and the visual system. Read more.
A*Star had this to say about the discovery: “Being inspired by the ultimate characteristics of rod photoreceptors, we carefully investigated the impact of photon fluctuations of various classical light sources on their response (coherent and pseudothermal). Our results revealed capabilities of isolated rods in measurement of photon statistics. It is of future interest to investigate rod interfaces with nonclassical light, in particular, with correlated two-photon light and intense multiphoton twin-beam states. The developed approach can be also used in interfacing rods with realistic sources of intensity fluctuations, such as blinking star lights observed through turbulent atmosphere.” Read more.
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