When performing optical measurement with a limited photon budget, it is important to assure that each detected photon provides as much information as possible. Conventional optical imaging systems generally capture light with just two characteristics (x,y), measuring its intensity in a 2D (x,y) lattice. However, this throws away much of the information content actually carried by a photon. This information can be written in nine dimensions as (x,y,z,θ,φ,λ,t,ψ,χ): the spatial coordinates (x,y,z), the propagation polar angles (θ,φ), the wavelength (λ), emission time (t), and polarization orientation and ellipticity angles (ψ,χ). Neglecting coherence effects, a photon thus carries with it nine tags.

    To explore this wealth of information, we leverage the advances in computational optics, micro-fabrication, and detector technology and develop cutting-edge multidimensional imaging techniques to simultaneously capture multiple photon tags in parallel, thereby maximizing the information content we can acquire from a single camera exposure. Currently, we focus on the following three game-changing technologies and exploring their application in bioimaging.