Non-invasive super-resolution imaging through scattering media using fluctuating speckles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a non-invasive super-resolution imaging method through scattering media using speckle fluctuations, enabling nanoscale visualization of hidden objects with simple hardware by leveraging high-order cumulants.

Contribution

It proposes a novel computational approach that utilizes object fluctuations and the optical memory effect to achieve super-resolution imaging behind scattering media.

Findings

Resolution improved by factor of √N with cumulant order N

Effective suppression of noise and artifacts in images

Achieved diffraction-limited imaging through scattering media

Abstract

Extending super-resolution imaging techniques to objects hidden in strongly scattering media potentially revolutionize the technical analysis for much broader categories of samples, such as biological tissues. The main challenge is the media's inhomogeneous structures which scramble the light path and create noise-like speckle patterns, hindering the object's visualization even at a low-resolution level. Here, we propose a computational method relying on the object's spatial and temporal fluctuation to visualize nanoscale objects through scattering media non-invasively. The fluctuating object can be achieved by random speckle illumination, illuminating through dynamic scattering media, or flickering emitters. The optical memory effect allows us to derive the object at diffraction limit resolution and estimate the point spreading function (PSF). Multiple images of the fluctuating object are obtained by deconvolution, then super-resolution images are achieved by computing the high order cumulants. Non-linearity of high order cumulant significantly suppresses the noise and artifacts in the resulting images and enhances the resolution by a factor of $\sqrt{N}$, where $N$ is the cumulant order. Our non-invasive super-resolution speckle fluctuation imaging (NISFFI) presents a nanoscopy technique with very simple hardware to visualize samples behind scattering media.