Analysis of Strehl ratio limit with superresolution binary phase filters

Abstract

Several pupil filtering techniques have been developed in the last few years to obtain transverse superresolution (a narrower point spread function core). Such a core decrease entails two relevant limitations: a decrease of the peak intensity and an increase of the sidelobe intensity. Here, we calculate the Strehl ratio as a function of the core size for the most used binary phase filters. Furthermore, we show that this relation approaches the fundamental limit of the attainable Strehl ratio at the focal plane for any filter. Finally, we show the calculation of the peak-to-sidelobe ratio in order to check the system viability in every application.