3-D Optical Interference Microscopy at the Lateral Resolution

摘要

For applications in micro- and nanotechnologies the lateral resolution of optical 3-D microscopes becomes an issue of increasing relevance. However, lateral resolution of 3-D microscopes is hard to define in a satisfying way. Therefore, we first study the measurement capabilities of a highly resolving white-light interference (WLI) microscope close to the limit of lateral resolution. Results of measurements and simulations demonstrate that better lateral resolution seems to be achievable based on the envelope evaluation of a WLI signal. Unfortunately, close to the lateral resolution limit errors in the measured amplitude of micro-structures appear. On the other hand, results of interferometric phase evaluation seem to be strongly low-pass filtered in this case.