X-Ray Imaging Goes Quantum

Quantum imaging exploits quantum weirdness to improve the resolution or other properties of an imaging system. The approach has been widely applied to imaging with visible light, but a team has now demonstrated this quantum enhancement at x-ray wavelengths. The researchers developed the first x-ray source that can generate a so-called quantum correlation between two photons—a long-distance, quantum mechanical relationship. The team used the photon pairs to image a simple object. The results show that quantum correlations improved the sharpness of the acquired image and suggest that similar approaches might benefit other x-ray-based research, such as studying defects in materials or determining the structures of biomolecules.