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Published May 20, 2019 | Published + Submitted + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Quantum-limited estimation of the axial separation of two incoherent point sources

Abstract

Improving axial resolution is crucial for three-dimensional optical imaging systems. Here we present a scheme of axial superresolution for two incoherent point sources based on spatial mode demultiplexing. A radial mode sorter is used to losslessly decompose the optical fields into a radial mode basis set to extract the phase information associated with the axial positions of the point sources. We show theoretically and experimentally that, in the limit of a zero axial separation, our scheme allows for reaching the quantum Cramér–Rao lower bound and thus can be considered as one of the optimal measurement methods. Unlike other superresolution schemes, this scheme does not require either activation of fluorophores or sophisticated stabilization control. Moreover, it is applicable to the localization of a single point source in the axial direction. Our demonstration can be useful for a variety of applications such as far-field fluorescence microscopy.

Additional Information

© 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement. Received 14 December 2018; revised 14 March 2019; accepted 26 March 2019 (Doc. ID 355468); published 26 April 2019. Funding: Office of Naval Research (ONR) (N000141512635, N000141712443); Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of Canada (CERC); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); Army Research Office (ARO) (W911NF-15-1-0496); National Science Foundation (NSF) (DMR-1506081). We thank Mankei Tsang for helpful discussions.

Attached Files

Published - optica-6-5-534.pdf

Submitted - 1810.01027.pdf

Supplemental Material - 3863794.pdf

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August 19, 2023
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