Confocal imaging from biphoton correlations
Abstract
Confocal microscopy provides optical sectioning for three-dimensional imaging but conventionally relies on point-by-point scanning and physical pinholes, limiting imaging speed. Here, we demonstrate that confocal sectioning can instead arise directly from quantum measurement, using spatial correlations in entangled biphoton states. Spatially resolved coincidence measurements in a widefield imaging system suppress contributions from out-of-focus planes, producing optical sectioning in parallel across the whole field of view without physical pinholes or mechanical scanning. In addition, this quantum approach obtains an axial response that, as a result of position-momentum entanglement, is √2-times narrower than that of classical confocal imaging. Our work establishes biphoton correlations as a mechanism for improved confocal imaging and enables parallel, pinhole-free optical sectioning without mechanical scanning.
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BibTeX
@misc{millar2026confocal,
title = {{Confocal imaging from biphoton correlations}},
author = {Euan Millar and Emma Pearce and Daniele Faccio and Miles J. Padgett},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.39954},
eprint = {2609.39954},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.39954},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Confocal imaging from biphoton correlations
AU - Euan Millar
AU - Emma Pearce
AU - Daniele Faccio
AU - Miles J. Padgett
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.39954
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.39954
AB - Confocal microscopy provides optical sectioning for three-dimensional imaging but conventionally relies on point-by-point scanning and physical pinholes, limiting imaging speed. Here, we demonstrate that confocal sectioning can instead arise directly from quantum measurement, using spatial correlations in entangled biphoton states. Spatially resolved coincidence measurements in a widefield imaging system suppress contributions from out-of-focus planes, producing optical sectioning in parallel across the whole field of view without physical pinholes or mechanical scanning. In addition, this quantum approach obtains an axial response that, as a result of position-momentum entanglement, is √2-times narrower than that of classical confocal imaging. Our work establishes biphoton correlations as a mechanism for improved confocal imaging and enables parallel, pinhole-free optical sectioning without mechanical scanning.
ER -