Nanometric resolution using far-field optical tomographic microscopy in the multiple scattering regime

Abstract

The resolution of optical far-field microscopes is classically diffraction-limited to half the illumination wavelength. We show experimentally that this fundamental limit does not apply in the multiple scattering regime. We used tomographic diffractive microscopy at 633 nm to image two pairs of closely spaced rods (with a width and interdistance of 50 nm) of widely different diffractive properties. Using an inversion algorithm accounting for multiple scattering, only the pair of highly diffracting rods could be clearly visualized with a resolution similar to that of an atomic force microscope.