Complete modeling of subsurface microscopy system based on aplanatic solid immersion lens

A general model of a subsurface microscopy system based on an aplanatic solid immersion lens (ASIL) is presented. This model is composed of three components: generation of incident light into the ASIL, interaction of the incident light with the sample, and imaging of the scattered light. Interaction of incident light with sample can be calculated numerically using electromagnetic scattering theory, while vector diffraction theory is used to treat the other two components. Examples of imaging small and extended scatterers are shown. For small scatterers, we show the differences between the actual resolution of the whole system and the resolution predicted by considering only one subsystem of the whole system. For extended scatterers, two types of illuminations-focusing light illumination and plane wave direct illumination-are used to image the scatterers, and observations are explained using interaction of the incident light with the sample. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America