QmagiC - Quantum Super-Resolution Imaging in Complex Media

Images are a fundamental tool for our understanding of the world both at microscopic and macroscopic length scales. The simplest way to acquire an image is to analyze light through spatially resolved intensity measurements, e.g., on a camera, but this approach is limited by diffraction. The development of imaging techniques that beat the diffraction limit is known as super-resolution. Recently, using quantum metrology, it was demonstrated that super-resolution can be achieved through spatial-mode demultiplexing (SpaDe).

In real-world applications, imaging systems are often preceded by complex media, e.g. the atmosphere when observing objects on the Earth’s surface from satellites or layers of tissue in biomedical imaging. Accordingly, in the QmagiC project we will study SpaDe-based super-resolution through complex media.

With quantum metrology, we determine the ultimate resolution limits for imaging in complex media and achieve them experimentally. We implement SpaDe measurements coupled to quantum-optimal data-processing algorithms. The QmagiC project will yield both the ultimate limits of optical imaging in complex optical media as well as the technical tools to achieve them.

Project “QmagiC” received funding from the Fraunhofer ATTRACT programme.