FOURIER OPTICS ANALYSIS OF SPHERICAL-PARTICLES IMAGE-FORMATION IN REFLECTION ACOUSTIC MICROSCOPY

The process of contrast formation for spherical particles in reflectio n scanning acoustic microscopes is investigated. It is shown that in r eflection acoustic microscopes the image formation of spherical partic les is quantitatively well described by the Fourier optics methods. Th e center image of a sphere shows the Fourier transformation of the squ ared pupil function. The images in the top are similar to the OTF of t he confocal microscopical system. The contrast of the image obtained i n a middle position exhibits the pupil function in square.