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Takashige Omatsu, Editor-in-Chief
Microspherical nanoscopy: is it a reliable technique?
Radu Malureanu, Osamu Takayama, Evgeniy Shkondin, Andrey Novitsky, and Andrei V. Lavrinenko
Radu Malureanu,1,* Osamu Takayama,1 Evgeniy Shkondin,1,2 Andrey Novitsky,1,3 and Andrei V. Lavrinenko1
1Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
2Currently with the National Centre for Nano Fabrication and Characterization, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
3Currently with the Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Belarusian State University, Nezavisimosti Avenue 4, 220030 Minsk, Belarus
*Corresponding author: rmal@dtu.dk
Radu Malureanu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6093-5030
Osamu Takayama https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3525-3262
R Malureanu
O Takayama
E Shkondin
A Novitsky
A Lavrinenko
Vol. 3,
•https://doi.org/10.1364/OSAC.378355
Radu Malureanu, Osamu Takayama, Evgeniy Shkondin, Andrey Novitsky, and Andrei V. Lavrinenko, "Microspherical nanoscopy: is it a reliable technique?," OSA Continuum 3, 10-19 (2020)
Blind deconvolution
Diffraction limit
Evanescent waves
Revised Manuscript: December 11, 2019
Manuscript Accepted: December 11, 2019
We looked at the typical resolution provided by microspheres in nanoobject imaging. The resolution was studied with two kinds of materials: high-index barium titanate glass and low-index polystyrene. Spheres of different sizes were taken, and thus we also checked if there is any dependence of the resolution capabilities on their dimensions. We concluded that, although we observed an increase in resolution for some of the spheres, practical considerations and lack of consistency in imaging makes this technique too cumbersome for practical applications.
© 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
Unusual imaging properties of superresolution microspheres
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Seoungjun Lee, Lin Li, Zengbo Wang, Wei Guo, Yinzhou Yan, and Tao Wang
Influence of the photonic nanojet of microspheres on microsphere imaging
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Fig. 1. SEM image of a typical 250 nm period lattice.
Fig. 2. Optical microscope image ($100 \times $ magnification, NA = 0.95 objective) of a 500 nm (a) and 300 nm (b) period lattices, taken in air. In the insets, the Fourier transforms of the images showing the clear presence of the grating (a) and its absence (b). The scalebars are 2.5 µm.
Fig. 3. Optical microscope image of a cluster of BTG spheres used for imaging (a) and a 250 nm lattice viewed through them (b). It can be seen that some spheres image the lattice while others do not. The scalebars are 10 µm.
Fig. 4. Crop of a lattice image from a specific sphere. These cropped images were then used for processing. The scalebar is 1 µm
Fig. 5. (a) Typical image of a lattice after deconvolution. It shows a much higher contrast as well as areas where there is no lattice imaged. (b) Typical image when a lattice was not imaged. A high-frequency periodicity can be observed as an artifact of the deconvolution. (c) The Fourier transform of an image with lattice present. Apart from the 0-order peak, in the center of the figure, one can see 4 maxima, close to the center, related to the lattice period and two more, related to artifacts in the deconvolution. The scalebars are 1 µm
Fig. 6. The variation of the magnification function of the imaging plane, for the spheres that allowed viewing the lattices. It can be seen that magnification can vary substantially for the same sphere. The panels are for different sphere clusters. (a) and (b) are lattices with 250 nm period while (c) is a lattice with 300 nm period. The same convention will be kept throughout the subsequent images. To be noted that the "imaging plane" number cannot be correlated from one graph to another.
Fig. 7. The variation of magnification function on the sphere radii in micrometers. It clearly shows that the spheres with the same radius can image with different magnifications. Each sphere is denoted with one specific color to differentiate between the variation within one sphere and the variation from one sphere to another, but having the same radius.
Fig. 8. The average depth of the imaging plane function of the sphere radii in micrometers. According to the ray optic theory, position of the imaging plane should be linearly dependent on the sphere radii, the fact that cannot be experimentally verified.
Fig. 9. The average depth of the imaging plane function of the sphere radii in micrometers in the case of a $50 \times $ magnification objective. Also in this case, there is no clear correlation between the imaging plane and the sphere radii. (a) is for 250 nm lattice period and (b) is for 300 nm lattice period. This convention is kept for the subsequent figures.
Fig. 10. The magnification function of the sphere radii in micrometers in the case of a $50 \times $ magnification objective. The same conclusion as from the $100 \times $ magnification objective applies.
Fig. 11. The magnification function of the imaging plane in the case of a $50 \times $ magnification objective. Also here, a clear increase in magnification with depth is observed.