Imaging with solid immersion lenses, spatial resolution, and applications

Solid immersion microscopy, similar to liquid immersion microscopy, extends the diffraction limit by filling the object space with a high refractive i ndex material, such as glass (index of refraction n = 1.5-2), sapphire (n s imilar to 1.8), and semiconductor materials (n similar to 3), which Shrink the wavelength of light. Bur solid immersion technique achieve significantl y higher spatial resolution since the refractive indices of available solid s can be much higher than those of liquids (n = 1.3-1.5). Besides high spat ial resolution, solid immersion microscopy also possesses all the good prop erties of far-field imaging, such as high transmission efficiency and paral lel imaging capability, which make it outstanding among beyond-the-diffract ion-limit optical imaging techniques. In this paper we discuss, from an exp erimental point of view, the resolution limit of solid immersion microscopy and the implementation of such technique in various applications.