Superresolution in confocal scanning microscopy: Theory of the incoherent case

Abstract

In 1982 Bertero and Pike [1] showed that superresolution was possible in microscopy by recording the image over a larger area than the geometric one and subsequent inversion of the data by, for example, a singular system analysis. In a series of papers following, these authors and others have considered a number of special cases, both analytically and numerically. In this paper we investigate the incoherent case, which applies to confocal scanning fluorescence microscopy, in 1-D. Numerical studies have already given a clear indication of the form of the results for the case of an infinite recorded image, indicating a transfer function of the curious form shown in figure 1.