Plenoptic imaging through correlation

Traditional optical imaging is characterized by the typical trade-off between resolution and depth of field (DOF). In order to increase resolution, high numerical apertures (NA) are needed, but the associated large angular uncertainty results in a limited range of depths that can be put in sharp focus. Plenoptic imaging (PI) is a promising optical modality that simultaneously captures the location and the propagation direction of light in order to enable refocusing of the acquired images. Thanks to its ability to simultaneously acquire multi-perspective images, plenoptic imaging is one of the most promising technologies for 3D imaging. However, the improvement offered by standard plenoptic imaging is practical rather than fundamental: the increased DOF leads to a proportional reduction of the resolution well above the diffraction limit imposed by the lens NA. We have recently demonstrated that the intrinsic correlation of both chaotic light and entangled photons enables pushing plenoptic imaging to its fundamental limits of both resolution and DOF. In this paper we demonstrate correlation plenoptic imaging (CPI) of a double slit and present the comparison between theoretical prediction and experimental images.