Abstract

Applying the principle of differential confocal microscopy to wide-field optically sectioning microscopy, we develop a noninterferometric optical profilometer without scanning mechanisms. Depth resolution of 2 nm is achieved with a power-regulated tungsten-halogen lamp as the light source and a 14-bit CCD camera as the detector. The effects of inhomogeneous surface reflectivity are removed from topographic measurements by arithmetic division. The whole system can be constructed on a single silicon chip for use as a miniaturized optical profiler.

© 2002 Optical Society of America

Deconvolution of local surface response from topography in nanometer profilometry with a dual-scan method

Chao-Wei Tsai, Chau-Hwang Lee, and Jyhpyng Wang
Opt. Lett. 24(23) 1732-1734 (1999)

Effect of an annular pupil filter on differential confocal microscopy

Li Liu, Xiaoqiang Deng, Lisong Yang, Guiying Wang, and Zhizhan Xu
Opt. Lett. 25(23) 1711-1713 (2000)

Optical measurement of the viscoelastic and biochemical responses of living cells to mechanical perturbation

Chau-Hwang Lee, Chin-Lin Guo, and Jyhpyng Wang
Opt. Lett. 23(4) 307-309 (1998)

Dual-confocal fiber-optic method for absolute measurement of refractive index and thickness of optically transparent media

Ilko K. Ilev, Ronald W. Waynant, Kimberly R. Byrnes, and Juanita J. Anders
Opt. Lett. 27(19) 1693-1695 (2002)

En face imaging of single cell layers by differential phase-contrast optical coherence microscopy

Markus Sticker, Michael Pircher, Erich Götzinger, Harald Sattmann, Adolf F. Fercher, and Christoph K. Hitzenberger
Opt. Lett. 27(13) 1126-1128 (2002)