Hemispherical digital optical condensers with no lenses, mirrors, or moving parts

Abstract

We present a simple method for obtaining direct non-scanning images in the far-field with subwavelength resolution. Our approach relies on the use of a digital optical condenser comprised of an array of light emitting diodes uniformly distributed inside of a hollow hemisphere. We demonstrate experimental observation of minimum feature sizes of the order of λ/6 with the proposed technique. Although our experiments were performed at visible frequencies, we anticipate that the proposed approach to subwavelength resolution can be extended to the ultraviolet and infrared spectral regions.