SUPERRESOLUTION WITH AN APODIZATION FILM IN A CONFOCAL SETUP

We put forward the idea of implementing a confocal setup to suppress t he large sidelobes spreading all through the field outside the central core. They are produced when an apodization film is imposed on an ord inary lens. Furthermore, this avoids the imaging quality degradation c aused by nonaxial points and non-Gaussian-plane points. Also a configu ration for achieving three-dimensional superresolution is depicted and discussed. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America