Abstract
The spatial resolution of an optical system is limited by diffraction. Various schemes have been proposed to achieve resolution enhancement by employing either a scanning source/detector configuration or a two-photon response of the object. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a full-field resolution-enhancing scheme, based on the centroid estimation of spatially quantum-correlated biphotons. Our standard-quantum-limited scheme is able to image a general non-fluorescing object, using low-energy and low-intensity infrared illumination (i.e., with <0.001 photon per pixel per frame at 710 nm), achieving 41% of the theoretically available resolution enhancement. Images of real-world objects are shown for visual comparison, in which the classically bound resolution is surpassed using our technically straightforward quantum-imaging scheme.
Highlights
The spatial resolution of an optical system is limited by diffraction, as studied by Abbe and Rayleigh [1,2]
This number was estimated by subtracting the number of accidental biphotons found in spatially uncorrelated frames from the number of biphotons found in spatially correlated frames
We have experimentally demonstrated a resolution-enhancing imaging scheme based on the centroid estimation of spatially correlated biphotons, in which the object is probed by low-energy infrared biphotons in the low-intensity regime
Summary
The spatial resolution of an optical system is limited by diffraction, as studied by Abbe and Rayleigh [1,2]. For this reason, it is not possible to arbitrarily resolve the most small-scale details of a sample, as visibility is inevitably lost. It is not possible to arbitrarily resolve the most small-scale details of a sample, as visibility is inevitably lost It is not surprising how this problem has been, and still is, the subject of extensive research. Quantum lithography can produce a Heisenberg-limited resolution enhancement, but is limited to measuring the spacing between interferometric fringes [10,11,12,13,14], making it unsuitable for conventional imaging. Concerning quantum optical centroid measurements, Shin et al have shown the feasibility of this approach in their quantumlithography scheme, producing one-dimensional superresolved
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