Quantum correlations overcome the photodamage limits of light microscopy

Abstract: State-of-the-art microscopes use intense lasers that can severely disturb biological processes, function and viability. This introduces hard limits on performance that only quantum photon correlations can overcome. Here we demonstrate this absolute quantum advantage, achieving signal-to-noise beyond the photodamage-free capacity of conventional microscopy. We achieve this in a coherent Raman microscope, which we use to image molecular bonds within a cell with both quantum-enhanced contrast and sub-wavelength resolution. This allows the observation of nanoscale biological structures that would otherwise not be resolved. Coherent Raman microscopes allow highly selective biomolecular finger-printing in unlabelled specimens, but photodamage is a major roadblock for many applications. By showing that this roadblock can be overcome, our work provides a path towards order-of-magnitude improvements in both sensitivity and imaging speed.