Optical imaging beyond the diffraction limit, i.e., optical superresolution, has been studied extensively in various contexts. This paper presents an overview of some mathematical concepts relevant to superresolution in linear optical systems. Properties of bandlimited functions are surveyed and are related to both instrumental and computational aspects of superresolution. The phenomenon of superoscillation and its relation to superresolution are discussed.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2040-8978/14/8/083001/pdf

Mathematical concepts of optical superresolution

Conventional optics is diffraction limited due to the cutoff of spatial frequency components, and evanescent waves allow subdiffraction optics at the cost of complex near-field manipulation. Recently, optical superoscillatory phenomena were employed to realize superresolution lenses in the far field, but suffering from very narrow working wavelength band due to the fragility of the superoscillatory light field. Here, an ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens (UBSOL) is proposed and realized by utilizing the metasurface-assisted law of refraction and reflection in arrayed nanorectangular apertures with variant orientations. The ultrabroadband feature mainly arises from the nearly dispersionless phase profile of transmitted light through the UBSOL for opposite circulation polarization with respect to the incident light. It is demonstrated in experiments that subdiffraction light focusing behavior holds well with nearly unchanged focal patterns for wavelengths spanning across visible and near-infrared light. This method is believed to find promising applications in superresolution microscopes or telescopes, high-density optical data storage, etc.

Ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens composed by plasmonic metasurfaces for subdiffraction light focusing

Traditional objective lenses in modern microscopy, based on the refraction of light, are restricted by the Rayleigh diffraction limit. The existing methods to overcome this limit can be categorized into near-field (e.g., scanning near-field optical microscopy, superlens, microsphere lens) and far-field (e.g., stimulated emission depletion microscopy, photoactivated localization microscopy, stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) approaches. However, they either operate in the challenging near-field mode or there is the need to label samples in biology. Recently, through manipulation of the diffraction of light with binary masks or gradient metasurfaces, some miniaturized and planar lenses have been reported with intriguing functionalities such as ultrahigh numerical aperture, large depth of focus, and subdiffraction-limit focusing in far-field, which provides a viable solution for the label-free superresolution imaging. Here, the recent advances in planar diffractive lenses (PDLs) are reviewed from a united theoretical account on diffraction-based focusing optics, and the underlying physics of nanofocusing via constructive or destructive interference is revealed. Various approaches of realizing PDLs are introduced in terms of their unique performances and interpreted by using optical aberration theory. Furthermore, a detailed tutorial about applying these planar lenses in nanoimaging is provided, followed by an outlook regarding future development toward practical applications.

Planar Diffractive Lenses: Fundamentals, Functionalities, and Applications.

Optical microscopy suffers from a fundamental resolution limitation arising from the diffractive nature of light. While current solutions to sub-diffraction optical microscopy involve combinations of near-field, non-linear and fine scanning operations, we hereby propose and demonstrate the optical super-microscope (OSM) - a superoscillation-based linear imaging system with far-field working and observation distances - which can image an object in real-time and with sub-diffraction resolution. With our proof-of-principle prototype we report a point spread function with a spot size clearly reduced from the diffraction limit, and demonstrate corresponding improvements in two-point resolution experiments. Harnessing a new understanding of superoscillations, based on antenna array theory, our OSM achieves far-field, sub-diffraction optical imaging of an object without the need for fine scanning, data post-processing or object pre-treatment. Hence the OSM can be used in a wide variety of imaging applications beyond the diffraction limit, including real-time imaging of moving objects.

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An optical super-microscope for far-field, real-time imaging beyond the diffraction limit.

Superoscillation is a phenomenon where a wave oscillates locally faster than its highest Fourier component. While previous reports have shown attractive possibilities for a superoscillation-based far-field superresolution imaging device, it has also been recognized that a high-energy “sideband” region coexists with the superresolution features. This sideband causes strong restrictions and necessitates trade-offs in achievable resolution, viewing area, and sensitivity of the imaging device. In this work, we introduce a new class of superoscillation waveform—which consists of a diffraction-limited hotspot surrounded by low-energy superoscillating sidelobe ripples. This waveform alleviates the aforementioned trade-off and enables superresolution imaging for complex objects over a larger viewing area while maintaining a practical level of sensitivity. Using this waveform as the point spread function of an imaging system, we demonstrate the successful superresolution of Latin letters without performing scanning and/or post-processing operations.

Superresolution far-field imaging of complex objects using reduced superoscillating ripples

The idea of superresolving pupil filters comes from the concept of superoscillations that may occur in regions of a band-limited signal with small amplitude having oscillations faster than the fastest Fourier component of the signal. In optical microscopy, superresolution can be achieved by appropriate design of pupil functions where the angular aperture determines the ultimate focal spot smaller than the Abbe diffraction limit outside the evanescent field region. The angular aperture cannot be increased indefinitely and the huge sidelobes cannot be avoided that are present in superresolving filters. The limitations of using such kind of filters in microscopy applications are discussed through computational examples.

Jani Tervo

Papers

Limitations of superoscillation filters in microscopy applications