Sultan Wadood
Princeton University
“Quantum-inspired imaging”
Abstract
The resolution of an imaging system is traditionally thought to be limited by the Rayleigh criterion, a century-old rule linking resolution to aperture size. Circumventing this limit often requires delicate source control, nonlinearity, or numerical postprocessing based on prior knowledge. In this talk, I will present a passive, linear optical approach for sub-Rayleigh imaging, inspired by ideas from quantum information theory. I will describe our experimental demonstration of quantum-inspired superresolution, focusing on the canonical problem of estimating the separation between two closely spaced point sources in the sub-Rayleigh regime, where they would otherwise be indistinguishable. These results have potential applications in microscopy, spectroscopy, sensing, and astronomy. In conclusion, I will discuss the prospects and challenges of extending these ideas to arbitrary source geometries and realistic imaging scenarios, highlighting how classical Fourier optics and quantum metrology offer design principles to improve resolution performance.
Dr. Sultan Wadood is a Presidential Postdoctoral fellow in the Fleischer lab at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Princeton university. His research focuses on using nonlinear and quantum effects to improve resolution in imaging and sensing. He obtained a Ph.D. in optics with Nick Vamivakas from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester, where he worked on statistical optics and optical analogs of quantum phenomena.
Date: 6 May 2026, Wednesday
Time: 15:30
Place: SA-240
All interested are cordially invited.