SUPERRESOLVING MASKS FOR INCOHERENT SCANNING MICROSCOPY

An approach to achieve superresolution in confocal scanning microscopy by using the singular-system approach to the inverse problem was rece ntly proposed. It consists of using a specially designed mask that per forms the task of data inversion by means of all-optical processing. W e discuss an approximate binary form of such a mask that permits its p ractical manufacture for use iri incoherent confocal microscopy. The p erformance characteristics of such an approximate mask are compared wi th those of an exact mask and with those of a conventional confocal sc anning microscope. Although the resolution of the approximate microsco pe is slightly inferior to the exact one, they are both still advances over the conventional confocal one (the improvement of resolution bei ng 65% and 70% respectively).