Quantum Microscopy: Reaching and Surpassing the Quantum Limits to Biological Imaging

This project sought to develop new microscopy tools using quantum correlated photons and quantum optics techniques. These quantum microscopes have allowed us to demonstrate absolute quantum advantage in microscopy for the first time that is, to achieve imaging performance beyond what is possible without using quantum physics, and to achieve orders of magnitude improvements in both nanoscale viscosity measurements and ultrasound sensing. Ournew microscopes provide new tools to study cellular and neuronal signaling pathways with lower light intensities and without requiring labels or genetic modifications. They set the stage to resolve important questions in biophysics, including the effect of radio and optical frequency radiation on the machinery of living organisms both at the single molecule level and at microsecond time scales within a cell. Answers to these questions would contribute to our understanding of mechanisms associated with fatigue and performance changes, and the signals they produce in our bio-circuitry.