Superresolution effect due to a thin dielectric slab for imaging with radially polarized light
Peiwen Meng (TU Delft - ImPhys/Optics)
SF Pereira (TU Delft - ImPhys/Optics)
X. Dou (TU Delft - ImPhys/Optics, Shenzhen University)
H. Paul Urbach (TU Delft - ImPhys/Optics)
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Abstract
Improving the image quality of small particles is a classic problem and especially challenging when the distance between particles are below the optical diffraction limit. We propose a imaging system illuminated with radially polarized light combined with a suitable substrate that contains a thin dielectric layer to demonstrate that the imaging quality can be enhanced. The coupling between the evanescent wave produced in a designed thin dielectric layer, the small particles and the propagating wave forms a mechanism to transfer sub-wavelength information about the particles to the far field. The smallest distinguished distance reaches to 0.634λ, when the imaging system is composed of a high numerical aperture (NA=0.9) lens and the illumination wavelength λ = 632nm, beyond the diffraction limit 0.678λ. The lateral resolution can be further improved by combining the proposed structure with superresolution microscopy techniques.