Rostock 2019 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 24: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics I
Q 24.10: Poster
Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 16:30–18:30, S Fobau Physik
Wavelength-scale errors in optical localization due to spin-orbit coupling of light — •Stefan Walser1, Gabriel Araneda2, Yves Colombe2, Daniel B. Higginbottom2,3, Jürgen Volz1, Rainer Blatt2,4, and Arno Rauschenbeutel1,5 — 1Atominstitut TU-Wien — 2Universität Innsbruck — 3Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University — 4Institut für Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation, Innsbruck — 5Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
The precise determination of the position of sub-wavelength scale emitters using far-field optical imaging techniques is of utmost importance for a wide range of applications in medicine, biology, astronomy and physics. We theoretically and experimentally show that, for a standard optical imaging system like an optical microscope, the image of an elliptically polarized point-like emitter does in general not coincide with the emitter's real position. Instead, even for perfect, aberration-free imaging with high numerical aperture, the image can in general be shifted. Imaging a single gold nanoparticle in a standard immersion microscopy setup, we experimentally demonstrate this effect and observe shifts up to one optical wavelength. Such shifts can lead to a systematic error in the optical localization of emitters which exceeds the typical precision of super-localization microscopes by far. Moreover, for the case of small numerical aperture, the shift can in principle reach arbitrarily large values. Beyond its relevance for optical imaging, the demonstrated phenomenon may also occur for sources of other types of waves as for instance in radar and sonar imaging.