Super-resolution imaging system based on integrated microsphere objective lens

Abstract

White-light super-resolution imaging, proposed in 2011, has been achieved by combining the transparent microspheres of the micron scale with an ordinary optical microscope. At present, in most of the researches employed is the way of spreading microspheres directly onto the surface of sample, which causes the randomness and discontinuity of microspheres. It is impossible to achieve the complete imaging of specific regions, which greatly limits the application scope of this technology. Such an issue can be solved by using microprobes or micro-cantilevers to precisely transfer the location of microsphere, but for doing so, a sophisticated controlling system is required, which is costly and not user-friendly. In this paper, a robust, controllable, easy-to-use integrated design which can efficiently consolidate microsphere and objective together is demonstrated for super-resolution imaging. The PDMS and customized metal sleeve are used to encapsulate the microsphere semi-submerged on the ordinary objective lens to achieve an integrated design. In this system, the distances among the microsphere, objective lens and the sample are controlled accurately by building a side-view imaging and position feedback system. With the help of a universal microscopic imaging system, the super-resolution imaging of specific controlled areas is realized. Based on theoretical analysis, the semi-submerged structure of the 100-μm-diameter BaTiO₃ microsphere has a strong focusing effect, which can form the so-called ‘photonic nanojet’ on a micro-scale in length and on a sub-diffraction scale in waist to possess the ability to break through the diffraction limit within the range of focal length. At the same time, experiments are carried out for investigating imaging performances at various working distances in the air. According to the experimental results, the system can clearly distinguish between the CPU lattice features of 200 nm and the Blu-ray disc fringe of 100 nm, which means that the resolution of the ordinary microscopic objective lens (40×, NA 0.6) is significantly enhanced by 4.78×. In addition, with the increase of working distance, the magnification factor increases gradually, but the image contrast becomes worse, and the super-resolution effect fades. The integrated design which can match with ordinary optical microscope to achieve super resolution imaging has universality of installation and operation, and greatly conduces to super-resolution imaging of sub-diffraction limit samples.