Near-field projection optical microscope (NPOM) as a new approach to nanoscale super-resolved imaging

Abstract

A new super-resolution method, entitled Near-field Projection Optical Microscopy (NPOM), is presented. This novel technique enables the imaging of nanoscale objects without the need for surface scanning, as is usually required in existing methods such as NSOM (near-field scanning optical microscope). The main advantage of the proposed concept, besides the elimination of the need for a mechanical scanning mechanism, is that the full field of regard/view is imaged simultaneously and not point-by-point as in scanning-based techniques. Furthermore, by using compressed sensing, the number of projected patterns needed to decompose the spatial information of the inspected object can be made smaller than the obtainable points of spatial resolution. In addition to the development of mathematical formalism, this paper presents the results of a series of complementary numerical tests, using various objects and patterns, that were performed to verify the accuracy of the reconstruction capabilities. We have also performed a proof of concept experiment to support the numerical formalism.