@inproceedings{28a04be8b9154bf9a5d67b4cef48948d,
title = "Comparison between microsphere-assisted and confocal microscopies",
abstract = "We show that microsphere-assisted microscopy, where liquid-immersed barium titanate glass (n ∼ 1.9) beads with diameters of several microns are employed, has superior optical resolution compared to the confocal microscopy. The resolution advantage of microsphere-assisted microscopy stems from an ability of high-index microspheres to pick spatial distribution of optical near-fields produced by the plasmonic nanostructure used in our experiments. It is shown that an additional advantage of imaging through liquid-immersed microspheres is the ability to achieve high resolution imaging using microscope objectives with moderate numerical apertures. This means that microsphere-assisted microscopy can be performed with longer working distances compared to conventional or confocal microscopy. Super-resolution microscopy by using liquid-immersed microspheres can be potentially used in biomedical microscopy, microfluidics, and nanophotonics applications.",
keywords = "Super-resolution, confocal, imaging, microscopy, photonic nanojet, subdiffraction resolution",
author = "Arash Darafsheh and Limberopoulos, {Nicholaos I.} and Derov, {John S.} and Walker, {Dennis E.} and Astratov, {Vasily N.}",
year = "2013",
doi = "10.1109/ICTON.2013.6602909",
language = "English",
isbn = "9781479906826",
series = "International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks",
booktitle = "2013 15th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks, ICTON 2013",
note = "2013 15th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks, ICTON 2013 ; Conference date: 23-06-2013 Through 27-06-2013",
}