Hannover 2020 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 14: Precision Measurements and Metrology
Q 14.3: Talk
Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 11:30–11:45, a310
Information content of higher-order intensity correlation measurements about the separation of two equally bright thermal light sources — •Manuel Bojer1, Anton Classen1,2, and Joachim von Zanthier1 — 1Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), 91058 Erlangen, Germany — 2Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Rayleigh’s criterion states that two light sources are unresolvable close to each other if their images, blurred by diffraction, overlap significantly. However, via quantum estimation theory it could be shown that even for small distances there should be in principle information about the source separation available. We here explicitly calculate the quantum Fisher information for two thermal light sources of equal intensities in the far field without an imaging system. Additionally we calculate a lower bound on the Fisher information of various measurement schemes including multi-photon measurements and compare them to the quantum Fisher information. We compare the information content of intensity correlation measurements with a certain numerical aperture to the quantum Fisher information of a smaller with a usual G(1) measurement attainable numerical aperture. We show that the intensity correlation measurements scale very favourable over a large interval of separations due to the bigger numerical aperture, such that they look particularly promising in astronomy for enhancing the resolution of two close-by stars.