Quantum superresolution in fluorescence microscopy

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a quantum imaging technique that surpasses the diffraction limit in fluorescence microscopy by exploiting photon antibunching, a quantum property, using a photon counting camera.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental realization of sub-diffraction quantum imaging leveraging naturally occurring quantum light in fluorescence microscopy.

Findings

Achieved resolution beyond the diffraction limit using quantum correlations.

Utilized photon antibunching to perform superresolution imaging.

Implemented a standard wide-field fluorescence microscope for quantum imaging.

Abstract

The optical diffraction limit, formulated by Abbe 140 years ago, imposes a bound on imaging resolution in classical optics. Over the last twenty years, many theoretical schemes have been presented for overcoming the diffraction barrier in optical imaging using quantum properties of light. An experimental realization of sub-diffraction limited quantum imaging has, however, remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate a quantum imaging method taking advantage of non-classical light naturally produced in fluorescence microscopy due to photon antibunching, a fundamentally quantum phenomenon prohibiting simultaneous emission of multiple photons. Using a photon counting digital camera, we detect antibunching-induced second and third order intensity correlations and perform sub-diffraction limited quantum imaging in a standard wide-field fluorescence microscope.