Lateral Resolution Enhancement in Confocal Self-interference Microscopy with Commercial Calcite Plate

Abstract

In light microscopy, spatial resolution is limited by diffraction effect. Confocal microscopy has improved resolutions in both lateral and axial directions, but these are still limited by diffraction effect. Confocal self-interference microscopy (CSIM) uses interference between two perpendicularly polarized beams to enhance lateral resolution. In previous research, we proposed a calcite plate with its optic-axis perpendicular to the propagation angle and one of the boundary surfaces of the plate. This type of plate is not widely used to our knowledge. In this paper, we change the calcite plate to more common one, which is commercially available. This calcite plate has its optic axis in the plane of incidence. We analyze the characteristics of this calcite plate and numerically compare the performances of CSIM in previous research and CSIM with the commercial calcite plate. Numerical results show improved performance when using the commercial calcite plate