Far-¯eld°uorescence microscopy has made great progress in the spatial resolution, limited by light di®raction, since the super-resolution imaging technology appeared. And stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy and structured illumination microscopy (SIM) can be grouped into one class of the super-resolution imaging technology, which use pattern illumination strategy to circumvent the di®raction limit. We simulated the images of the beads of SIM imaging, the intensity distribution of STED excitation light and depletion light in order to observe e®ects of the polarized light on imaging quality. Compared to¯xed linear polarization, circularly polarized light is more suitable for SIM on reconstructed image. And right-handed circular polarization (CP) light is more appropriate for both the excitation and depletion light in STED system. Therefore the right-handed CP light would be the best candidate when the SIM and STED are combined into one microscope. Good understanding of the polarization will provide a reference for the patterned illumination experiment to achieve better resolution and better image quality.

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