Abstract

We have shown previously¹ that the phase conjugate scanning microscope can image intensity objects much better than previous optical microscopes. We present here the theoretical analysis and experimental results concerning the effect of pinhole size on lateral resolution, depth of field, and image of phase objects. The results show that when the diameter of the pinholes is less than the halfwidth of the impulse response of the lenses, the imaging system has higher lateral resolution and better sectioning discrimination than other optical microscopes. It also can image phase objects. When the pinhole positioned in front of the phase conjugator is larger than the width of the intensity impulse response, the system has no improvement of lateral resolution and depth discrimination compared to the single-pass scanning microscope, and cannot image phase objects.

© 1989 Optical Society of America