Abstract
The diffraction limit is a fundamental barrier in optical microscopy, which restricts the smallest resolvable feature size of a microscopic system. Microsphere-based microscopy has proven to be a promising tool for challenging the diffraction limit. Nevertheless, the microspheres have a low imaging contrast in air, which hinders the application of this technique. In this work, we demonstrate that this challenge can be effectively overcome by using partially Ag-plated microspheres. The deposited Ag film acts as an aperture stop that blocks a portion of the incident beam, forming a photonic hook and an oblique near-field illumination. Such a photonic hook significantly enhanced the imaging contrast of the system, as experimentally verified by imaging the Blu-ray disc surface and colloidal particle arrays.
Highlights
Optical microscopes (OMs) are one of the most important tools for scientific research
The super-resolution image formed by the BTG microsphere has a poor quality, with very low imaging contrast, which is not sufficient for most of the practical applications
The p-BTG lens shows a textured appearance and forms a magnified real image when the Ag film is on the side of the microsphere (Figure 3c), in which case the Ag film acts as an aperture stop, enhancing the contrast of the image and forming a photonic hook inside the microsphere
Summary
Optical microscopes (OMs) are one of the most important tools for scientific research. We present the performance of super-resolution imaging in air using patchy microspheres. The p-BTG particles were observed with a commercial reflected light microscope (Axio AX10, Carl Zeiss) for super-resolution imaging (Figure 1b).
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