2018/06/30 by Ron Tenne, Uri Rossman, Batel Rephael +7
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques #Artificial intelligence #Computer science #Diffraction #Image resolution #Materials science #Microscopy #Near-Field Optical Microscopy #Near-field scanning optical microscope #Open quantum system #Optical microscope #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photon #Physics #Quantum #Quantum dot #Quantum imaging #Quantum mechanics #Quantum technology #Resolution (logic) #Scanning electron microscope #Scanning probe microscopy #physics.bio-ph #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41566-018-0324-z
published as Nature Photon 13, 116-122 (2019)
arxiv created 2018/10/21 · openalex publication_date 2018/12/10 · arxiv updated 2020/11/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The principles of quantum optics have yielded a plethora of ideas to surpass the classical limitations of sensitivity and resolution in optical microscopy. While some ideas have been applied in proof-of-principle experiments, imaging a biological sample has remained challenging mainly due to the inherently weak signal measured and the fragility of quantum states of light. In principle, however, these quantum protocols can add new information without sacrificing the classical information and can therefore enhance the capabilities of existing super-resolution techniques. Image scanning microscopy (ISM), a recent addition to the family of super-resolution methods, generates a robust resolution enhancement without sacrificing the signal level. Here we introduce quantum image scanning microscopy (Q-ISM): combining ISM with the measurement of quantum photon correlation allows increasing the resolution of ISM up to two-fold, four times beyond the diffraction limit. We introduce the Q-ISM principle and obtain super-resolved optical images of a biological sample stained with fluorescent quantum dots using photon antibunching, a quantum effect, as a resolution enhancing contrast mechanism.