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Physical Review Letters

Supersensitive Polarization Microscopy Using NOON States of Light

Yonatan Israel, Shamir Rosen, Yaron R. Silberberg

Published Mar 12, 2014• 256 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A quantum polarized light microscope using entangled NOON states with N=2 and N=3 is shown to provide phase supersensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit. We constructed such a microscope and imaged birefringent objects at a very low light level of 50 photons per pixel, where shot noise seriously hampers classical imaging. The NOON light source is formed by combining a coherent state with parametric down-converted light. We were able to show improved phase images with sensitivity close to the Heisenberg limit.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.112.103604

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A quantum polarized light microscope using entangled NOON states with N=2 and N=3 is shown to provide phase supersensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit. We constructed such a microscope and imaged birefringent objects at a very low light level of 50 photons per pixel, where shot noise seriously hampers classical imaging. The NOON light source is formed by combining a coherent state with parametric down-converted light. We were able to show improved phase images with sensitivity close to the Heisenberg limit.
Abstract As an emerging microscopic detection tool, quantum microscopes based on the principle of quantum precision measurement have attracted widespread attention in recent years. Compared with the imaging of classical light, quantum-enhanced imaging can achieve ultra-high resolution, ultra-sensitive detection, and anti-interference imaging. Here, we introduce a quantum-enhanced scanning microscope under illumination of an entangled NOON state in polarization. For the phase imager with NOON states, we propose a simple four-basis projection method to replace the four-step phase-shifting method. We have achieved the phase imaging of micrometer-sized birefringent samples and biological cell specimens, with sensitivity close to the Heisenberg limit. The visibility of transmittance-based imaging shows a great enhancement for NOON states. Besides, we also demonstrate that the scanning imaging with NOON states enables the spatial resolution enhancement of N compared with classical measurement. Our imaging method may provide some reference for the practical application of quantum imaging and is expected to promote the development of microscopic detection.
Polarized light microscopy using path-entangled NNN-photon states (i.e., the N00N states) has been demonstrated to surpass the shot-noise limit at very low light illumination. However, the microscopy images suffer from divergence of phase sensitivity, which inevitably reduces the image quality. Here we show that due to experimental imperfections, such a singularity also takes place in the microscopy that uses twin-Fock states of light for illumination. We propose two schemes to completely eliminate this singularity: (i) locking the phase shift sensed by the beams at the optimal working point using a spatially dependent offset phase; (ii) a combination of two binary-outcome photon counting measurements, one with a fixed offset phase and the other without any offset phase. Our observations remain valid for any kind of binary-outcome measurement and may open the way for quantum-enhanced microscopy with high NNN photon states.
We use entangled photons as the light source in a normal microscope. Using this quantum illumination improves both the resolution and noise rejection in the image. The resolution of any classical imaging system is limited by the diffraction created by the finite size of the imaging lens. By using a light source that emits pairs of entangled photons and carefully controlling a camera that is capable of detecting single photons it is possible to observe these photons arriving two-by-two. Applying camera analysis software to log only these two-by-two events one can form an image from the mid-point (bisector) of each of these pair events. The image formed from the sum of all these bisectors has an improved resolution that surpasses the classical limit. Another advantage of using a quantum illumination is that it allows the two-by-two events from entangled photon pairs to be distinguished from background (classical) light and sensor noise. When processed in this way the resulting image is free of camera noise and any background light may be eliminated. The use of a quantum illumination protocol such as that used here results in the elimination of background light and therefore allows the development of the optical equivalent of quantum radar – a quantum enhanced LIDAR scheme. Using quantum illumination, combined with commercially available cameras that are sensitive to single photons creates a new approach to super-resolution and low noise microscopy. Imaging through noise with quantum illumination, T Gregory, P-A Moreau, E Toninelli, and M J Padgett, Science Advances 6, eaay2652 (2020) Resolution-enhanced quantum imaging by centroid estimation of biphotons, E Toninelli, P-A Moreau, T Gregory, A Mihalyi, M Edgar, N Radwell, and M J Padgett, Optica 6, 347-353 (2019)
Quantum metrology enables us to estimate optical phase shifts beyond the shot noise limit. Applications include quantum-enhanced biological measurement [1], microscopy [2] and gravitational wave detection[3]. For two-mode N-photon system, the NOON state can achieve the highest possible phase sensitivity where multi-photon coherence between two states significantly contributes to improving the phase sensitivity. Another alternative approach to improve the phase sensitivity by use of squeezed states. Squeezing is usually characterized by reducing the quantum noise of desired observable at the expense of increasing the quantum noise for its non-commute partner. Because shot-noise limits the phase sensitivity of any classical states, the reduced quantum noise can be used for improving the phase sensitivity. Here we experimentally study the phase sensitivity of an optical spin-squeezed state by using linear optics. We generated the optical spin-squeezed state using one photon subtraction from a down converted photon source. To implement the sub-shot noise measurement, we used multiplexed photon number resolving detectors so that we can reconstruct the photon number statistics of the state. In the talk, we will analyse the generated state in terms of both squeezing and phase sensitivity by using Fisher information.