Realisation of the first sub shot noise wide field microscope

摘要

In the last years several proof of principle experiments have demonstratedthe advantages of quantum technologies respect to classical schemes. Thepresent challenge is to overpass the limits of proof of principledemonstrations to approach real applications. This letter presents such anachievement in the field of quantum enhanced imaging. In particular, wedescribe the realization of a sub-shot noise wide field microscope based onspatially multi-mode non-classical photon number correlations in twin beams.The microscope produces real time images of 8000 pixels at full resolution, for(500micrometers)2 field-of-view, with noise reduced to the 80% of the shotnoise level (for each pixel), suitable for absorption imaging of complexstructures. By fast post-elaboration, specifically applying a quantum enhancedmedian filter, the noise can be further reduced (less than 30% of the shotnoise level) by setting a trade-off with the resolution, demonstrating the bestsensitivity per incident photon ever achieved in absorption microscopy.