Loss Of Lateral Resolution Research Articles

3D Correlation Imaging for Localized Phase Disturbance Mitigation

Correlation plenoptic imaging is a procedure to perform light-field imaging without spatial resolution loss, by measuring the second-order spatiotemporal correlations of light. We investigate the possibility of using correlation plenoptic imaging to mitigate the effect of a phase disturbance in the propagation from the object to the main lens. We assume that this detrimental effect, which can be due to a turbulent medium, is localized at a specific distance from the lens, and is slowly varying in time. The mitigation of turbulence effects has already fostered the development of both light-field imaging and correlation imaging procedures. Here, we aim to merge these aspects, proposing a correlation light-field imaging method to overcome the effects of slowly varying turbulence, without the loss of lateral resolution, typical of traditional plenoptic imaging devices.

Joint Generalized Coherence Factor and Minimum Variance Beamformer for Synthetic Aperture Ultrasound Imaging

The delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer is the most commonly used method in medical ultrasound imaging. Compared with the DAS beamformer, the minimum variance (MV) beamformer has an excellent ability to improve lateral resolution by minimizing the output of interference and noise power. However, it is hard to overcome the tradeoff between satisfactory lateral resolution and speckle preservation performance due to the fixed subarray length of covariance matrix estimation. In this study, a new approach for MV beamforming with adaptive spatial smoothing is developed to address this problem. In the new approach, the generalized coherence factor (GCF) is used as a local coherence detection tool to adaptively determine the subarray length for spatial smoothing, which is called adaptive spatial-smoothed MV (AMV). Furthermore, another adaptive regional weighting strategy based on the local signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and GCF is devised for AMV to enhance the image contrast, which is called GCF regional weighted AMV (GAMV). To evaluate the performance of the proposed methods, we compare them with the standard MV by conducting the simulation, in vitro experiment, and the in vivo rat mammary tumor study. The results show that the proposed methods outperform MV in speckle preservation without an appreciable loss in lateral resolution. Moreover, GAMV offers excellent performance in image contrast. In particular, AMV can achieve maximal improvements of speckle signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by 96.19% (simulation) and 62.82% (in vitro) compared with MV. GAMV achieves improvements of contrast-to-noise ratio by 27.16% (simulation) and 47.47% (in vitro) compared with GCF. Meanwhile, the losses in lateral resolution of AMV are 0.01 mm (simulation) and 0.17 mm (in vitro) compared with MV. Overall, this indicates that the proposed methods can effectively address the inherent limitation of the standard MV in order to improve the image quality.

Extended depth of focus multiphoton microscopy via incoherent pulse splitting.

We present a beam splitter mask that can be easily added to a multiphoton raster scanning microscope to extend the depth of focus five-fold at a small loss in lateral resolution. The method is designed for ultrafast laser pulses or other light-sources featuring a low coherence length. In contrast to other methods of focus extension, our approach uniquely combines low complexity, high light-throughput and multicolor capability. We characterize the point spread function in a two-photon microscope and demonstrate fluorescence imaging of GFP labeled neurons in fixed brain samples as imaged with conventional and extended depth of focus two-photon microscopy.

Off-axis reference beam for full-field swept-source OCT and holoscopy.

In numerous applications, Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) suffers from a limited imaging depth due to signal roll-off, a limited focal range, and autocorrelation noise. Here, we propose a parallel full-field FD-OCT imaging method that uses a swept laser source and an area camera in combination with an off-axis reference, which is incident on the camera at a small angle. As in digital off-axis holography, this angle separates autocorrelation signals and the complex conjugated mirror image from the actual signal in Fourier space. We demonstrate that by reconstructing the signal term only, this approach enables full-range imaging, i.e., it increases the imaging depth by a factor of two, and removes autocorrelation artifacts. The previously demonstrated techniques of inverse scattering and holoscopy can then numerically extend the focal range without loss of lateral resolution or imaging sensitivity. The resulting, significantly enhanced measurement depth is demonstrated by imaging a porcine eye over its entire depth, including cornea, lens, and retina. Finally, the feasibility of in vivo measurements is demonstrated by imaging the living human retina.

MeV-SIMS capillary microprobe for molecular imaging

Abstract An MeV-SIMS microprobe has been constructed based on primary beam collimation by a conical glass capillary. Molecular surface mapping is obtained by raster scanning of the sample with a piezo-driven XY stage. The angular divergence of the collimated beam is smaller than 0.3 mrad, which allows a relatively large distance between capillary exit and sample without a significant loss in lateral resolution. With a capillary of 5 μm outlet diameter a lateral resolution of approximately 10 μm has been observed at a working distance of 50 mm. Capillary collimation can be obtained in a very simple and inexpensive fashion and is virtually independent of the used beam particle properties over a large range of ion mass and energy.

Reflective metasurface lens with an elongated needle-shaped focus

Novel multifocal flat metasurface (MS) lenses are developed using two techniques: (i) polarization diversity, and (ii) annular segmentation of the lens aperture. The polarization-diversity technique enables overall lens aperture reuse, thus doubling the number of foci through the simultaneous focusing of two orthogonal linearly polarized incident beams at two distinct foci using the lens aperture. The annular-segmentation technique, on the other hand, is independent of incident beam polarization and is only based on dividing the lens aperture into concentric annular segments that converge different portions of the illuminating beam at different foci. The total number of foci can be further increased by combining the polarization-diversity and the annular-segmentation techniques. Subsequently, the concept of multifocality is further extended to design a novel flat lens with an overall single needle-like focal region with elongated depth of focus (DOF) without loss of lateral resolution. To this goal, we design a multifocal lens with overlapping profiles of foci superposed into a single elongated needle-shaped focal region. Using the combination of polarization-diversity and annular-segmentation techniques, we develop a novel MS flat lens made of Y-shaped nanoantennas, whose polarization-dependent reflection phase and amplitude can be controlled independently via their geometrical parameters. Via numerical calculations, we demonstrate that the proposed MS lens has an overall single focal region with an extremely long DOF of about 74.1 λ, a lateral full width at half maximum varying in the range of 1.37 λ to 2.8 λ, and a numerical aperture of about 0.26 (considering the center of the focal region as the effective focal point). Here, the MS lens’s capability to synthesize extremely long DOF is conceptually demonstrated without resorting to time-consuming and complicated wavefront synthesis methods. The engineering of focal intensity profiles with flat MSs may introduce significant advancement in nanoimaging, many areas of microscopy, and ophthalmic applications.

Numerical investigation of depth profiling capabilities of helium and neon ions in ion microscopy

The analysis of polymers by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has been a topic of interest for many years. In recent years, the primary ion species evolved from heavy monatomic ions to cluster and massive cluster primary ions in order to preserve a maximum of organic information. The progress in less-damaging sputtering goes along with a loss in lateral resolution for 2D and 3D imaging. By contrast the development of a mass spectrometer as an add-on tool for the helium ion microscope (HIM), which uses finely focussed He+ or Ne+ beams, allows for the analysis of secondary ions and small secondary cluster ions with unprecedented lateral resolution. Irradiation induced damage and depth profiling capabilities obtained with these light rare gas species have been far less investigated than ion species used classically in SIMS. In this paper we simulated the sputtering of multi-layered polymer samples using the BCA (binary collision approximation) code SD_TRIM_SP to study preferential sputtering and atomic mixing in such samples up to a fluence of 1018 ions/cm2. Results show that helium primary ions are completely inappropriate for depth profiling applications with this kind of sample materials while results for neon are similar to argon. The latter is commonly used as primary ion species in SIMS. For the two heavier species, layers separated by 10 nm can be distinguished for impact energies of a few keV. These results are encouraging for 3D imaging applications where lateral and depth information are of importance.

Enhanced depth of field laser processing using an ultra-high-speed axial scanner

Lasers are ubiquitous in materials processing, but the requirement of precise control of the focal plane in order to ensure optimal performance constitutes a time limiting step for high-throughput laser manufacturing. Here, we overcome this limitation by axially scanning the focus at high speeds using an acoustically driven liquid lens. We demonstrate this approach by processing silicon surfaces, and we find it is possible to enhance the depth-of-field by an order of magnitude without loss in lateral resolution. These results open the door to a fundamental change in the paradigm for laser processing by eliminating the need in z-focus control.

Statistical multioffset phase analysis for surface-wave processing in laterally varying media

Standard procedures for dispersion analysis of surface waves use multichannel wavefield transforms. By using several receivers, such procedures integrate the information along the entire acquisition array. That approach improves data quality and robustness significantly, but its side effects are spatial averaging and loss of lateral resolution. Recently, a new approach was developed to address that issue and maximize lateral resolution. The new method uses multioffset phase analysis to detect and locate sharp lateral variations in velocity. By using the phase analysis approach, the number of usable channels can be maximized, thereby gaining data quality without compromising lateral resolution. In fact, such preliminary data analysis also allows selection of the appropriate traces on which to perform multichannel processing. Such multioffset phase analysis can be enhanced by f-k filtering, which assures the selection of only one wave-propagation mode, and by a statistical analysis that takes advantage of data redundancy of multishot data, usually collected, for example, in land refraction surveys. Moreover, this novel statistical method with f-k filtering can be used to retrieve a dispersion curve, in principle, for each receiver location. The quasi-continuous pseudoimage of shear-wave velocity as a function of offset and frequency allows a characterization of lateral variations in velocity, whether they are sharp or smooth.

Dark Field Raman Microscopy

Confocal Raman microscopy is often used for optical sectioning but is problematic when the sample plane of interest has a weak Raman cross-section/signal relative to areas that are out-of-focus. This is especially true for clinical samples in pathology, which consist of a thin tissue (approximately 5 microm) sample placed on a thick glass slide. Here, we recognize that the problem is the result of the extent of the illumination at the confocal plane being larger than the size of the sample and propose a dark field illumination scheme to efficiently reject substrate signals. The ability of several optical configurations in rejecting out-of-plane signal is investigated for two model systems: SU-8 photo resist over Teflon and SU-8 photo resist over polystyrene. The proposed reflective dark field approach, in which excitation converged to a focal point slightly above the focal plane of the collection optics, was found to be most effective in recording data from the sample. The proposed approach is validated by the rejection of substrate response (fluorescence) in spectra acquired from approximately 4 microm of breast tissue on a glass microscope slide. The proposed approach is easy to implement on existing confocal systems, has a straightforward optimization in acquiring data, and is not expected to result in loss of lateral resolution in mapping experiments.

White-light interference microscopy: a way to obtain high lateral resolution over an extended range of heights

A problem with conventional techniques of interference microscopy, when profiling surfaces with an extended range of heights, is that only points on a single plane are in sharp focus. Other points, which are higher or lower, may be out of focus, with a consequent loss of lateral resolution. We show that white-light interference microscopy, with an achromatic phase-shifter, makes it possible to produce a three-dimensional representation of such surfaces with high lateral resolution over the entire range of heights.

Common-reflection-surface stack — a real data example

The simulation of a zero-offset (ZO) stack section from multi-coverage reflection data is a standard imaging method in seismic processing. It significantly reduces the amount of data and increases the signal-to-noise ratio due to constructive interference of correlated events. Conventional imaging methods, e.g., normal moveout (NMO)/dip moveout (DMO)/stack or pre-stack migration, require a sufficiently accurate macro-velocity model to yield appropriate results, whereas the recently introduced common-reflection-surface stack does not depend on a macro-velocity model. For two-dimensional seismic acquisition, its stacking operator depends on three wavefield attributes and approximates the kinematic multi-coverage reflection response of curved interfaces in laterally inhomogeneous media. The common-reflection-surface stack moveout formula defines a stacking surface for each particular sample in the ZO section to be simulated. The stacking surfaces that fit best to actual events in the multi-coverage data set are determined by means of coherency analysis. In this way, we obtain a coherency section and a section of each of the three wavefield attributes defining the stacking operator. These wavefield attributes characterize the curved interfaces and, thus, can be used for a subsequent inversion. In this paper, we focus on an application to a real land data set acquired over a salt dome. We propose three separate one-parametric search and coherency analyses to determine initial common-reflection-surface stack parameters. Optionally, a subsequent optimization algorithm can be performed to refine these initial parameters. The simulated ZO section obtained by the common-reflection-surface stack is compared to the result of a conventional NMO/DMO/stack processing sequence. We observe an increased signal-to-noise ratio and an improved continuity along the events for our proposed method — without loss of lateral resolution.

Computer-aided resolution enhancement for XPS imaging of an uncharged single chemical species

Imaging XPS can be performed by an application of the double focusing properties of the hemispherical electron energy analyser. The x-ray photoelectron spectra originating from an area of the specimen are depicted on a multichannel plate electron detector. An increasing size of this specimen area helps to reduce the total time for the generation of an XPS image. But, together with a reduction of the time of measurement, a loss of lateral resolution has to be expected. The present paper deals with the concept of computer-aided compensation for the loss of resolution due to an increase of the observed specimen area. The principle of this concept is based on a deconvolution of the measured x-ray photoelectron spectra.

X-Ray fluorescence analysis in the scanning electron microscope

X-ray fluorescence analysis can be performed in a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer by means of a special attachment. For the production of primary X-rays a target is positioned in the electron beam. With this technique an improvement of the detection limits is obtained because of the small fraction of bremsstrahlung in the X-ray spectrum. As a disadvantage a loss of lateral resolution occurs. The performance features of different types of construction (transmission and massive targets) are be compared for experimental results and theoretical models.

Beam techniques for the analysis of poorly conducting materials

Beam techniques for the surface analysis of solids [e.g., electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), analytical electron microscopy (AEM), low energy ion scattering (LEIS), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)], are based on the interaction of beams of photons, electrons, or ions, respectively, with a solid and the detection of the resulting information-carrying beams of photons, electrons, or ions. With these methods the chemical composition of the solid, across the sample surface and in depth (concentration profile) can be determined. A large number of artifacts may be introduced in any type of sample. In nonideal systems, such as glass and ceramic samples, additional difficulties can be introduced (A) by the poor electrical conductivity: charging of the sample occurs, leading to (a) deterioration and even a complete suppression of the spectra, (b) loss in lateral resolution in the imaging mode, and (c) migration of mobile ions in the sample and (B) by the extreme thin interfaces in polycrystalline materials which require the use of techniques with lateral resolution down to the 5 nm range. Mechanisms which lead to a deterioration of the spectra and procedures to overcome them will be discussed, followed by examples for the successful analysis of glasses and ceramics.