Abstract

The limitation imposed by diffraction on the resolving power of optical systems has been a central problem in optics since the fundamental studies by Abbe and Rayleigh. Fourier Imaging In the scanning microscope is considered, and the super-resolution achieved by scanning microscopy is re-reasoned. The effect of the object stop, the position of the detector, and its effective area on imaging performance of the scanning microscope are discussed. Imaging of a two-point object and response to a straight edge are compared. It Is found that a superresolved optical image cannot be formed in both a type 2 scanning microscope and a recently proposed microscope in which partially coherent illumination is formed by an annular source, but better reconstruction of an object from a diffraction-limited optical image can be achieved by making use of a priori information about the object and spatial frequency information which can be transmitted by the system.

© 1988 Optical Society of America