Improving resolution by the second-order correlation of light fields

As important analysis tools, microscopes with high spatial resolution are indispensable for scientific research and clinical diagnosis. We report a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration of a two-arm microscope scheme and show that, by measuring the second-order correlation of light fields, more details of an object can be obtained through recording more information about the initial illumination field. The effects arising from the transverse coherence length and the axial correlation depth of the illumination field are also discussed. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America