# Diffraction-limited plenoptic imaging with correlated light

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that correlation measurements can enhance plenoptic imaging, achieving diffraction-limited resolution while significantly increasing depth of field, surpassing traditional trade-offs in optical imaging.

## Contribution

It introduces a correlation-based method that pushes the fundamental limits of resolution and depth of field in plenoptic imaging.

## Key findings

- Maintains diffraction-limited resolution with increased depth of field
- Achieves a sevenfold increase in depth of field
- Provides both theoretical and experimental validation

## Abstract

Traditional optical imaging faces an unavoidable trade-off between resolution and depth of field (DOF). To increase resolution, high numerical apertures (NA) are needed, but the associated large angular uncertainty results in a limited range of depths that can be put in sharp focus. Plenoptic imaging was introduced a few years ago to remedy this trade off. To this aim, plenoptic imaging reconstructs the path of light rays from the lens to the sensor. However, the improvement offered by standard plenoptic imaging is practical and not fundamental: the increased DOF leads to a proportional reduction of the resolution well above the diffraction limit imposed by the lens NA. In this paper, we demonstrate that correlation measurements enable pushing plenoptic imaging to its fundamental limits of both resolution and DOF. Namely, we demonstrate to maintain the imaging resolution at the diffraction limit while increasing the depth of field by a factor of 7. Our results represent the theoretical and experimental basis for the effective development of the promising applications of plenoptic imaging.