The loss of the information, due to the diffraction and the evanescent waves, limits the resolving power of classical optical microscopy. In air, the lateral resolution of an optical microscope can approximated at half of the wavelength using a low-coherence illumination. Recently, several methods have been developed in order to overcome this limitation and, in 2011, a new far-field and full-field imaging technique was proposed where a sub-diffraction-limit resolution has been achieved using a transparent microsphere. In this article, the phenomenon of super-resolution using microsphere-assisted microscopy is analysed through rigorous electro-magnetic simulations. The performances of the imaging technique are estimated as function of optical and geometrical parameters. Furthermore, the role of coherence is introduced through the temporal coherence of the light source and the phase response of the object.

Date Published: 26 June 2017
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 10330, Modeling Aspects in Optical Metrology VI, 103300V (26 June 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2270246

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10330:
Modeling Aspects in Optical Metrology VI
Bernd Bodermann; Karsten Frenner; Richard M. Silver, Editor(s)