Nonclassical photon statistics as a resource in fluorescence based optical microscopy

Far-field optical microscopy beyond the Abbe diffraction limit is already a reality. Yet, while Abbe’s theory was based on classical physics, quantum mechanical phenomena were only very recently used for improving the performance of microscopes. I will review some of the progress in this arena, and show how we increase the resolution of a standard confocal by harnessing the quantum phenomenon of fluorescence antibunching and by its classical analog of fluorescence intermittency. Finally, I will discuss how the hardware and software advances required to make this an ubiquitous tool in bioimaging are becoming readily available, offering a unique potential pathway not only towards confocal imaging with increased performance but also in other arenas, all without sacrificing the simplicity and ease of the existing microscopy schemes.