Effective axial superresolution in single-photon 4Pi microscopy by Toraldo rings

摘要

We demonstrate theoretically the feasibility of single-photon 4Pi-confocal microscopy. By inserting a pair of properly designed multi-ring phase-only pupil filters in the illumination path of a 4Pi microscope the height of the sidelobes of the point spread function is importantly reduced, so that there is not ambiguity in the 3D image. Then, an axial resolution up to four times higher than that of single-photon confocal microscope can be effectively achieved.