An entropy-controlled objective chip for reflective confocal microscopy with subdiffraction-limit resolution

Jun He, Dong Zhao, Hong Liu, Jinghua Teng (), Cheng-Wei Qiu () and Kun Huang ()
Additional contact information
Jun He: University of Science and Technology of China
Dong Zhao: University of Science and Technology of China
Hong Liu: Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Innovis
Jinghua Teng: Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Innovis
Cheng-Wei Qiu: National University of Singapore
Kun Huang: University of Science and Technology of China

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Planar diffractive lenses (PDLs) with optimized but disordered structures can focus light beyond the diffraction limit. However, these disordered structures have inevitably destroyed wide-field imaging capability, limiting their applications in microscopy. Here, we introduce information entropy S to evaluate the disorder of an objective chip by using the probability of its structural deviation from standard Fresnel zone plates. Inspired by the theory of entropy change, we predict an equilibrium point $${S}_{0}=0.5$$ S 0 = 0.5 to balance wide-field imaging (theoretically evaluated by the Strehl ratio) and subdiffraction-limit focusing. To verify this, a $${NA}=0.9$$ N A = 0.9 objective chip with a record-long focal length of 1 mm is designed with $$S=0.535$$ S = 0.535 , which is the nearest to the equilibrium point among all reported PDLs. Consequently, our fabricated chip can focus light with subdiffraction-limit size of 0.44 λ and image fine details with spatial frequencies up to 4000 lp/mm experimentally. These unprecedented performances enable ultracompact reflective confocal microscopy for superresolution imaging.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41605-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-41605-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41605-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().