Noninvasive super-resolution imaging through scattering media

TL;DR

This paper introduces SOSLI, a non-invasive super-resolution imaging method that overcomes scattering media limitations, achieving over five-fold resolution enhancement and working through biological tissues.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel stochastic optical scattering localization imaging technique enabling super-resolution imaging through static and dynamic scattering media.

Findings

Achieves over five-fold resolution enhancement beyond diffraction limit.

Works through biological tissues with up to 80% decorrelation.

Demonstrates non-invasive imaging of hidden objects behind scattering media.

Abstract

Super-resolution imaging with advanced optical systems has been revolutionizing technical analysis in various fields from biological to physical sciences. However, many objects are hidden by strongly scattering media such as rough wall corners or biological tissues that scramble light paths, create speckle patterns and hinder object's visualization, let alone super-resolution imaging. Here, we realize a method to do non-invasive super-resolution imaging through scattering media based on stochastic optical scattering localization imaging (SOSLI) technique. Simply by capturing multiple speckle patterns of photo-switchable emitters in our demonstration, the stochastic approach utilizes the speckle correlation properties of scattering media to retrieve an image with more than five-fold resolution enhancement compared to the diffraction limit, while posing no fundamental limit in achieving higher spatial resolution. More importantly, we demonstrate our SOSLI to do non-invasive super-resolution imaging through not only optical diffusers, i.e. static scattering media, but also biological tissues, i.e. dynamic scattering media with decorrelation of up to 80%. Our approach paves the way to non-invasively visualize various samples behind scattering media at unprecedented levels of detail.