Quantum-Enhanced 3D Optical Microscopy (Q3DOM)

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Since the invention of optical imaging devices, such as microscopes and telescopes, there has been a quest to enhance their resolution. A fundamental limitation, known as the Rayleigh limit, is associated with diffraction: conventional optical systems cannot resolve angular separations smaller than the wavelength of the emitted light. In the last decades, a number of techniques for circumventing the diffraction limit in microscopy have been proposed, defining a field called superresolution imaging. However, these approaches are either operational in the near-field, or rely on non-linear probing, which makes them expensive, invasive, and not universally applicable.Developing an imaging technology that is linear-optical, operational in the far-field regime, and able to reconstruct three-dimensional structures would mark a revolution in all fields of science, engineering, biology and medicine that involve optical imaging.Although the diffraction limit has existed for 150 years and appeared unshakeable, a recent theoretical breakthrough has revealed that it can be beaten by applying a fundamentally different method of detection. Rather than measuring the intensity as a function of the transverse position in the collection plane (as the traditional "direct imaging" approach), one can measure the correlation of electromagnetic field amplitudes at different transverse positions. In practice, this involves detecting the light emitted by an object in higher-order transverse electromagnetic modes and enables one to extract further information about the incoming field, thereby achieving sub-Rayleigh precision and in principle reaching the ultimate resolution limits allowed by quantum mechanics. This discovery has been confirmed by a number of experiments, notably a recent work by the Oxford PI, which demonstrated, for the first time, the application of the new technique to obtain full 2D images of complex objects. However, there is still a long way to go before this method can become a mainstream, universally applicable imaging technique. One of the challenges is to extend the method to 3D imaging - that is, the task of mapping out the heights of object surface features. We will address this major challenge in this project. Reliant on the conceptual theory, recently developed by the Nottingham PI and Co-I, we will design an innovative instrument based on the core working principle of quantum superresolution, benchmark its capabilities against theoretical simulations, and demonstrate its performance in imaging real 3D samples. The main advantage of our proposed technology is its non-invasive nature. It will achieve sub-Rayleigh lateral and angular resolution without requiring any interaction and proximity to the sample, but by passively analysing the light field arriving from the sample making use of optimised detectors. Our proposed technology can therefore find wide-ranging applications, including imaging of biological tissues, quality control in additive manufacturing, and astronomical observations of twin stars and exoplanets.