No abstract

Surface plasmons are electromagnetic surface waves whose k vectors are greater than that of free-space radiation. We excite surface plasmons by using an oil-immersion lens, which forms one arm of an interferometer. We demonstrate the way in which the characteristic output variation with defocus is determined by the propagation properties of the surface plasmons, which leads to diffraction-limited surface plasmon microscopy in the far field.

Results are presented that show the microscope as capable of imaging results comparable or better than that in the literature and without the need to scan. Hence the system is shown to be wholly suitable to biological and research fields interested in thin films and surface reactions.

Surface plasmons (SP's) are electromagnetic surface waves that propagate along the interface between conductors and dielectrics. The k vector of these waves is larger than the free-space wave vector. The importance of SP's lies in the fact that they are extremely sensitive to small changes in the dielectric properties of substances that are in contact with the conductors. This property means that SP's have many sensor applications; however, when they are used in microscopic applications the lateral resolution is limited to several micrometers. We discuss how this limit can be overcome by use of defocused high-numerical-aperture liquid-immersion objectives. We also present SP images that demonstrate a resolution comparable with that expected from high-numerical-aperture optical microscopes. Finally, we discuss how ultrahigh-numerical-aperture objectives with numerical apertures greater than 1.5 can be expected to have considerable influence on biological imaging.

A heterodyne interference microscope arrangement for full-field imaging is described. The reference and object beams are formed with highly correlated, time-varying laser speckle patterns. The speckle illumination confers a confocal transfer function to the system, and by temporal averaging, the coherence noise that often degrades coherent full-field microscope images is suppressed. The microscope described is similar to a Linnik-type microscope and allows the use of high-numerical-aperture objective lenses, but the temporal coherence of the illumination permits the use of a low-power achromatic doublet in the reference arm. The use of a doublet simplifies alignment of the microscope and can reduce the cost. Preliminary results are presented that demonstrate full-field surface height precision of 1 nm rms.