Can the ghost imaging increase the lateral resolution of surface plasmon resonance microscopy?

Abstract

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) microscopy is one of the most sensitive optical label-free methods of microscopy. Nevertheless, it does not have a sufficiently high lateral resolution in comparison with other methods of optical microscopy. By analogy with the scattering medium, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) blur the observed area. To eliminate this disadvantage, we propose to adapt the method known as ghost imaging (GI), which is notable for its tolerance to environmental aberrations between an object and a camera. In this article, we propose a ghost imaging scheme for a surface plasmon resonance microscope using a pseudo-thermal radiation source. We make a fundamental analysis of the factors affecting the resolution capability of the ghost SPR microscopy. We claim that applying the ghost imaging method to SPR microscopy can improve its lateral resolution by eliminating uncorrelated with modulated radiation phase noise generated by the process of random re-emission of surface electromagnetic wave (SEW) from the site of excitation. In combination of factors, the ghost imaging method of SPR microscopy is potentially capable of becoming outstanding among other methods of microscopy of thin films.