Superresolution optical system by common-path interferometry

Abstract

We present a new approach to obtain superresolved images in digital holography by means of synthetic aperture generation using common-path interferometry and off-axis illumination in optical imaging systems. The paper includes two parts. First, we present a simple approach to double the resolution of an optical system using tilted illumination onto the object and an optical element in the image plane to produce the holographic recording. Then we present a novel approach consisting of attaching a diffraction grating in parallel together with the object in the input plane and using off-axis illumination provided by a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL) array to allow us achieving a major improvement in the optical resolution limit with an extremely low penalty in the complexity of the resulting system. Experimental investigation based on commercial microscope objectives is presented.