Sub-shot-noise shadow sensing with quantum correlations: data readme-file

Authors: Ermes Toninelli, Matthew P. Edgar, Paul-Antoine Moreau, Graham M. Gibson, Giles D. Hammond, and Miles J. Padgett* 
SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK (Dated: August 22, 2017)
*Electronic address: miles.padgett@glasgow.ac.uk


This readme file describes how to access the experimental data that was used to produce all of the results of the manuscript. In order to open the file format of the acquired frames it is necessary to install additional software. The files are saved in the .sif file format. This is Andor's proprietary file format that can be accessed using Andor's free-of-charge SIFIO SDK or Andor's Solis. See bottom of this file for useful links. 

The data is divided into correlated and uncorrelated data, which corresponds to frames taken without and with the neutral density filter placed after the non-linear crystal. The two folders (i.e. correlated and uncorrelated) have been zipped to reduce the size. Please unzip correlated.zip and uncorrelated.zip before moving on to the next steps.

Below is how the data is organised inside both the correlated and uncorrelated folders:
A total of 1,275 chunks of data are used for the full scan of the scanning wire. The scanning wire is moved through 25 positions: 1 central and 24 side positions (12 on each side of the central position). Each position of the wire is associated to 51 chunks of data. Each chunk of data contains 50 raw frames. The position increment from one position to the other of the wire is of 10 pixels (i.e. 10*13 micrometres). The chunks are numbered from 1 to 1,275. The first 51 chunks represent the central position of the scanning wire. The next 12 positions (12*51 chunks) represent the positions of the scanning wire being scanned to the left, the following 12 positions (12*51 chunks) represent the positions of the scanning wire being scanned to the right.

NB: All of the acquisition parameters of the camera are saved in the header of each .sif file (see SIF SDK manual from Andor on how to access the header).

Useful links:
http://www.andor.com/downloads
(search for 'sif' in the search box to download additional software/plug-ins to open the .sif file format).