Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres

Shang, Qingqing; Tang, Fen; Yu, Lingya; Oubaha, Hamid; Caina, Darwin; Yang, Songlin; Melinte, Sorin; Zuo, Chao; Wang, Zengbo; Ye, Ran

doi:10.3390/photonics8110513

Open AccessCommunication

Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres

by

Qingqing Shang

^1,†,

Fen Tang

^2,3,†,

Lingya Yu

⁴,

Hamid Oubaha

⁵,

Darwin Caina

^5,6,

Songlin Yang

⁷,

Sorin Melinte

⁵

,

Chao Zuo

⁸

,

Zengbo Wang

⁴

and

Ran Ye

^2,3,8,*

¹

Key Laboratory for Opto-Electronic Technology of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China

²

School of Computer and Electronic Information, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China

³

School of Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China

⁴

School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 1UT, UK

⁵

Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

⁶

Faculty of Science, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito 170521, Ecuador

⁷

Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

⁸

Smart Computational Imaging Laboratory (SCILab), School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Photonics 2021, 8(11), 513; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics8110513

Submission received: 10 October 2021 / Revised: 30 October 2021 / Accepted: 8 November 2021 / Published: 15 November 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic Jet: Science and Application)

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Abstract

The diffraction limit is a fundamental barrier in optical microscopy, which restricts the smallest resolvable feature size of a microscopic system. Microsphere-based microscopy has proven to be a promising tool for challenging the diffraction limit. Nevertheless, the microspheres have a low imaging contrast in air, which hinders the application of this technique. In this work, we demonstrate that this challenge can be effectively overcome by using partially Ag-plated microspheres. The deposited Ag film acts as an aperture stop that blocks a portion of the incident beam, forming a photonic hook and an oblique near-field illumination. Such a photonic hook significantly enhanced the imaging contrast of the system, as experimentally verified by imaging the Blu-ray disc surface and colloidal particle arrays.

Keywords: photonic jet; photonic hook; patchy particle; microspheres; super-resolution imaging

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MDPI and ACS Style

Shang, Q.; Tang, F.; Yu, L.; Oubaha, H.; Caina, D.; Yang, S.; Melinte, S.; Zuo, C.; Wang, Z.; Ye, R. Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres. Photonics 2021, 8, 513. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics8110513

AMA Style

Shang Q, Tang F, Yu L, Oubaha H, Caina D, Yang S, Melinte S, Zuo C, Wang Z, Ye R. Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres. Photonics. 2021; 8(11):513. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics8110513

Chicago/Turabian Style

Shang, Qingqing, Fen Tang, Lingya Yu, Hamid Oubaha, Darwin Caina, Songlin Yang, Sorin Melinte, Chao Zuo, Zengbo Wang, and Ran Ye. 2021. "Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres" Photonics 8, no. 11: 513. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics8110513

APA Style

Shang, Q., Tang, F., Yu, L., Oubaha, H., Caina, D., Yang, S., Melinte, S., Zuo, C., Wang, Z., & Ye, R. (2021). Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres. Photonics, 8(11), 513. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics8110513

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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