Dielectric Microsphere-Based Optical System For Super-Resolution Microscopy

We present a dielectric microsphere-based super-resolution optical microscope that can image a sample beyond the classical diffraction limit [1]. The super-resolution imaging capability of a single microsphere normally is restricted to an area of similar to 10 mu m(2), which essentially is the area of close contact of a microsphere with the sample. By fixing the microsphere on a frame attached to a microscope objective, we perform automatic step-by-step scanning and imaging of the sample. Later, the generated image set is synthesized into a single wide-field super-resolution image using a dedicated algorithm. Furthermore, we propose an array fabrication process for placing multiple microspheres in the optical path of the microscope objective, thereby parallelizing the imaging process.