Silicon substrate significantly alters dipole-dipole resolution in coherent microscope

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a silicon substrate affects the resolution and imaging performance in coherent microscopy by analyzing the dyadic Green's function and considering various experimental parameters.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical and numerical framework for understanding substrate effects on resolution, especially highlighting the impact of silicon substrates in microscopy.

Findings

Silicon substrates significantly disturb imaging contrast.

Resolution is affected by substrate properties and dipole configurations.

Modified measurement methods are proposed for $z$-polarized dipoles.

Abstract

Influences of a substrate below samples in imaging performances are studied by reaching the solution to the dyadic Green's function, where the substrate is modeled as half space in the sample region. Then, theoretical and numerical analysis are performed in terms of magnification, depth of field, and resolution. Various settings including positions of dipoles, the distance of the substrate to the focal plane and dipole polarization are considered. Methods to measure the resolution of $z$-polarized dipoles are also presented since the modified Rayleigh limit cannot be applied directly. The silicon substrate and the glass substrate are studied with a water immersion objective lens. The high contrast between silicon and water leads to significant disturbances on imaging.