Precision estimation of source dimensions from higher-order intensity correlations

Pearce ME, Mehringer T, von Zanthier J, Kok P (2015)


Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Journal

Publisher: American Physical Society

Book Volume: 92

Article Number: 043831

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.92.043831

Abstract

An important topic of interest in imaging is the construction of protocols that are not diffraction limited. This can be achieved in a variety of ways, including classical superresolution techniques or quantum entanglement-based protocols. Here, we consider superresolving imaging in the far field using higher-order intensity correlations. We show that third-and fourth-order correlations can improve upon the first-and second-order correlations that are traditionally used in classical optics and Hanbury Brown-Twiss-type experiments. The improvement is achieved entirely by post-processing of the data. As a demonstrator, we simulate the far field intensity distribution of a circular aperture that emits thermal light and use maximum likelihood estimation to determine the radius of the aperture. We compare the achieved precision to the Cramer-Rao lower bound and find that the variance of measurements for the third-and fourth-order correlation functions are indeed closer to the Cramer-Rao bound than that of the second-order correlation function. The method presented here is general, and can be used for all kinds of incoherent emitters, geometries, and types of noise.

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How to cite

APA:

Pearce, M.E., Mehringer, T., von Zanthier, J., & Kok, P. (2015). Precision estimation of source dimensions from higher-order intensity correlations. Physical Review A, 92(4). https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.043831

MLA:

Pearce, M. E., et al. "Precision estimation of source dimensions from higher-order intensity correlations." Physical Review A 92.4 (2015).

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