High-resolution imaging with multi-parameter quantum metrology

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The central goal of the project is to understand the ultimate resolution of imaging systems based on methods from quantum metrology. Previous analyses were based on classical wave mechanics and led to well-known bounds such as Rayleigh's or Abbey's diffraction limit, according to which the resolution of e.g. microscopes cannot be significantly better than the wavelength of the used light. These limits are, however, in conflict with clearly better, experimentally confirmed resolutions that can be achieved through appropriate measurement procedures and have meanwhile come to play an important role in biology. In contrast to those classical analyses, the project aims at calculating the resolution of optical imaging systems such as microscopes or telescopes only based on the laws of quantum mechanics. To that end, imaging will be formulated as a problem of quantum metrology, where a multitude of image parameters are coded in the quantum mechanical system "light", and the task is then to measure these parameters as precisely as possible. Measurement procedures shall be developed theoretically that come as close as possible to the so established bounds of resolution.