High resolution quantum enhanced phase imaging of cells

Abstract: Recovering both amplitude and phase information from a system is a fundamental goal of optical imaging. At the same time, it is crucial to use a low photon dose to avoid altering the system, particularly when dealing with biological samples. Quantum imaging offers a powerful approach for extracting more information per photon than classical techniques, which are ultimately limited by shot-noise. However, the trade-off between quantum noise reduction and spatial resolution has been considered a major drawback to the application of quantum techniques to small cellular and sub-cellular structures, where they could offer the most significant benefits. In this work, we overcome this limitation by demonstrating a resolution-independent quantum advantage. We achieve high-resolution phase imaging limited only by the numerical aperture, while simultaneously attaining quantum noise reduction. This enables, for the first time, sub-shot-noise quantitative phase imaging of biological cells. Unlike other quantum imaging approaches, our method operates in a quasi-single-shot wide-field mode, retrieves both phase and amplitude information, and does not rely on interferometric measurements, making it intrinsically fast and stable. These results pave the way for the immediate application of sub-shot-noise imaging in biology.