Far-field sub-diffraction-limited imaging techniques

The problem of surpassing the diffraction barrier in far-field optical microscopy is of tremendous interest both from a fundamental point of view and from a practical one. We are exploring new schemes which would simplify current techniques for microscopy beyond the diffraction limit.

Usually, sub-diffraction limited imaging is based on nonlinearity of the optical properties of the medium, as in multiphoton fluorescence, CARS, harmonic generation and saturation based-techniques.  Yet, there are other 'loopholes' in the theory underlying the diffraction limit - such as the assumption of classicality. We were the first to demonstrate the use of quantum resources such as non-classical photon statistics for sub-diffraction limited imaging, either as an analog to fluctuation based imaging or as an important add-on to localization imaging. We recently obtained the first biological images using quantum enhanced superresolution by quantum image scanning, a confocal technique whose resolution can exceed the Abbe limit by a factor of four, and which can be complemented by advanced image processing to further enhance resolution and speed up imaging.

Our work on "temporal superresolution" - characterization of ultrashort pulses via the use of slow detectors is closely related to this effort. Finally, we have been working on a closely related problem - that of computational imaging via phase retrieval, also in the context of applying phase retrieval to ultrafast pulse metrology. We recently used these tools to retrieve the temporal shape of attosecond pulses directly from the pulse spectra. 

Recent publications

  1. Y. Israel, R. Tenne, D. Oron, Y. Silberberg. “Quantum correlation enhanced super-resolution localization microscopy”, Nat. Commun. 8, 14786 (2017).
  2. R. Tenne, U. Rossman, B. Rephael, Y. Israel, A. Krupinski-Ptaszek, R. Lapkiewich, Y. Silberberg, D. Oron, “Super-resolution enhancement by quantum image scanning microscopy”, Nature Photonics 13, 116 (2019). See also News and Views by A. Forbes and V. Rodriguez-Fajardo, Nature Photonics 13, 76 (2019).
  3. O. Pedatzur, A. Trabattoni, B. Leshem, H. Shalmoni, M. C. Castrovilli, M. Galli, E. Mansson, F. Frassetto, L. Poletto, B. Nadler, O. Raz, M. Nisoli, F. Calegari, D. Oron, N. Dudovich, “Double Blind Holography of Attosecond Pulses”, Nature Photonics 13, 91 (2019).
  4. U. Rossman, R. Tenne, O. Solomon, I. Kaplan-Ashiri, T. Dadosh, Y. C. Eldar, D. Oron, "Rapid quantum image scanning microscopy by joint sparse reconstruction", Optica 6, 1290 (2019).
  5. G. Lubin, R. Tenne, I. M. Antolovic, E. Charbon, C. Bruschini, D. Oron, “Quantum correlation measurement with single photon avalanche diode arrays”, Optics Express 27, 32863 (2019).
  6. A. Sroda, A. Makowski, R. Tenne, U. Rossman, G. Lubin, D. Oron, R. Lapkiewicz, “SOFISM: Super-resolution optical fluctuation image scanning microscopy”, Optica 7, 1308 (2020).
  7. U. Rossman, T. Dadosh, Y. C. Eldar, D. Oron, "cSPARCOM: Multi-detector reconstruction by confocal super-resolution correlation microscopy", Optics Express 29, 12772 (2021).