Correlation plenoptic imaging

TL;DR

This paper introduces correlation plenoptic imaging, leveraging second-order light correlations to surpass classical resolution limits and enhance 3D imaging capabilities.

Contribution

It presents a novel method using chaotic light correlations to improve depth of field and resolution in plenoptic imaging.

Findings

Correlation plenoptic imaging outperforms standard methods in refocusing.

Second-order correlations enable higher spatial and angular resolution.

Enhanced 3D imaging with increased depth of field.

Abstract

Plenoptic imaging is a promising optical modality that simultaneously captures the location and the propagation direction of light in order to enable three-dimensional imaging in a single shot. However, in classical imaging systems, the maximum spatial and angular resolutions are fundamentally linked; thereby, the maximum achievable depth of field is inversely proportional to the spatial resolution. We propose to take advantage of the second-order correlation properties of light to overcome this fundamental limitation. In this paper, we demonstrate that the momentum/position correlation of chaotic light leads to the enhanced refocusing power of correlation plenoptic imaging with respect to standard plenoptic imaging.