INFLUENCE OF SOURCE COHERENCE AND APERTURE DISTRIBUTION ON THE IMAGING PROPERTIES IN DIRECT-VIEW MICROSCOPY

We discuss the imaging properties of the bright-field direct-view micr oscope employing source and detector arrays with an arbitrary distribu tion of pinholes. In general, we show that coherent laser illumination will result in a significant degradation in the imaging, compared wit h the more traditional use of an incoherent light source. We discuss t he imaging in terms of the partially coherent transfer function and il lustrate our general predictions by considering the specific responses to straight-edge, point, and planar objects. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.