Article published in Optica
Our article Superresolution via structured illumination quantum correlation microscopy (SIQCM) has been published as Optica 4, 580-587 (2017).
Abstract:
We propose to use intensity correlation microscopy in combination with structured illumination to image quantum emitters that exhibit antibunching with a spatial resolution reaching far beyond the Rayleigh limit. Combining intensity measurements and intensity autocorrelations up to order m creates an effective PSF with an FWHM shrunk by the factor √m. Structured illumination microscopy, on the other hand, introduces a resolution improvement of factor 2 by use of the principle of moiré fringes. Here, we show that for linear low-intensity excitation and linear optical detection, the simultaneous use of both techniques leads to a theoretically unlimited resolution power, with the improvement scaling favorably as m+√m, dependent on the correlation order m. Hence, this technique should be of interest in microscopy for imaging a variety of samples, including biological ones. We present the underlying theory and simulations, demonstrating the highly increased spatial superresolution, and point out the requirements for an experimental implementation.