Sub-Rayleigh resolution of two incoherent sources by array homodyning

Conventional incoherent imaging based on measuring the spatial intensity distribution in the image plane faces the resolution hurdle described by the Rayleigh diffraction criterion. Here, we demonstrate theoretically using the concept of the Fisher information that quadrature statistics measured by means of array homodyne detection enables estimation of the distance between two incoherent point sources well below the Rayleigh limit for sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio. This capability is attributed to the availability of spatial coherence information between individual detector pixels acquired using the coherent detection technique. A simple analytical approximation for the precision attainable in the sub-Rayleigh region is presented. Furthermore, an estimation algorithm is proposed and applied to Monte Carlo simulated data.