Direct detection of a single photon by humans

"Despite investigations for over 70 years, the absolute limits of human vision have remained unclear.

"Rod cells respond to individual photons, yet whether a single-photon incident on the eye can be perceived by a human subject has remained a fundamental open question. 

"Here we report that humans can detect a single-photon incident on the cornea with a probability significantly above chance. 

"This was achieved by implementing a combination of a psychophysics procedure with a quantum light source that can generate single-photon states of light. 

"We further discover that the probability of reporting a single photon is modulated by the presence of an earlier photon, suggesting a priming process that temporarily enhances the effective gain of the visual system on the timescale of seconds."


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