title: Sub-Rayleigh imaging via N-photon detection.
abstract: The Rayleigh diffraction bound sets the minimum separation for two point objects to be distinguishable in a conventional imaging system. We demonstrate sub-Rayleigh resolution by scanning a focused beam--in an arbitrary, object-covering pattern that is unknown to the imager--and using N-photon photodetection implemented with a single-photon avalanche detector array. Experiments show resolution improvement by a factor ∼(N-N(max))(½) beyond the Rayleigh bound, where N(max) is the maximum average detected photon number in the image, in good agreement with theory.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guerrieri
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maccone
authors.forename: Franco N C
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Jeffrey H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tisa
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zappa