Quantum theory of super-resolution for optical systems with circular apertures

We present the two-dimensional quantum theory of super-resolution, applicable for a large variety of optical systems with circular pupils. Our theory is formulated in terms of circular prolate spheroidal functions which form the eigen basis of two-dimensional imaging system with circular pupils. We provide, in particular, analytical and numerical results for the point-spread function characterizing reconstruction of optical objects with super-resolution from diffraction-limited images. We evaluate the super-resolution factor as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio in the input object for coherent light and multimode squeezed light. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.