Amplitude point-spread function measurement of high-NA microscope objectives by digital holographic microscopy

Abstract

We present here a three-dimensional evaluation of the amplitude point-spread function (APSF) of a microscope objective (MO), based on a single holographic acquisition of its pupil wavefront. The aberration function is extracted from this pupil measurements and then inserted in a scalar model of diffraction, allowing one to calculate the distribution of the complex wavefront propagated around the focal point. The accuracy of the results is compared with a direct measurement of the APSF with a second holographic system located in the image plane of the MO. Measurements on a 100 x 1.3 NA MO are presented.