Li Wenwen, Wang Zhongyang
Opt Express. 2022 Apr 11;30(8):12684-12694. doi: 10.1364/OE.451114.
The classical optical diffraction limit can be overcome by exploiting the quantum properties of light in several theoretical studies; however, they mostly rely on an entangled light source. Recent experiments have demonstrated that quantum properties are preserved in many fluorophores, which makes it possible to add a new dimension of information for super-resolution fluorescence imaging. Here, we developed a statistical quantum coherence model for fluorescence emitters and proposed a new super-resolution method using fluorescence quantum coherence in fluorescence microscopy. In this study, by exploiting a single-photon avalanche detector (SPAD) array with a time-correlated single-photon-counting technique to perform spatial-temporal photon statistics of fluorescence coherence, the subdiffraction-limited spatial separation of emitters is obtained from the determined coherence. We numerically demonstrate an example of two-photon interference from two common fluorophores using an achievable experimental procedure. Our model provides a bridge between the macroscopic partial coherence theory and the microscopic dephasing and spectral diffusion mechanics of emitters. By fully taking advantage of the spatial-temporal fluctuations of the emitted photons as well as coherence, our quantum-enhanced imaging method has the significant potential to improve the resolution of fluorescence microscopy even when the detected signals are weak.
在一些理论研究中，通过利用光的量子特性可以克服经典光学衍射极限；然而，这些研究大多依赖于纠缠光源。最近的实验表明，许多荧光团中都保留了量子特性，这使得为超分辨率荧光成像添加新的信息维度成为可能。在此，我们为荧光发射体开发了一种统计量子相干模型，并提出了一种在荧光显微镜中利用荧光量子相干的新超分辨率方法。在本研究中，通过利用具有时间相关单光子计数技术的单光子雪崩探测器（SPAD）阵列来进行荧光相干的时空光子统计，从确定的相干性中获得发射体的亚衍射极限空间分离。我们使用可实现的实验程序在数值上展示了来自两种常见荧光团的双光子干涉示例。我们的模型在宏观部分相干理论与发射体的微观退相和光谱扩散力学之间架起了一座桥梁。通过充分利用发射光子的时空涨落以及相干性，即使在检测信号较弱的情况下，我们的量子增强成像方法也具有显著提高荧光显微镜分辨率的潜力。
