Experimental confirmation of superresolution in incoherent confocal scanning microscopy using a singular system inversion

Abstract

Singular system inversion techniques provide the basis for processing data obtained from an array of N detectors in the image plane of a confocal scanning microscope system as proposed by Bertero and Pike [1]. For an infinite number of detectors, the theory (see companion paper) predicts a transfer function of the form Experimental confirmation is presented here for the case of a 1-D low-numerical-aperture incoherent system, an important result being that with as few as five detectors, spaced at half the (coherent-case) Rayleigh distance, R, a notable improvement over the conventional confocal scanning microscope system is achieved.