title: Sidelobe decline in single-photon 4Pi microscopy by Toraldo rings.
abstract: We demonstrate theoretically the feasibility of single-photon 4Pi-confocal microscopy. By inserting a pair of properly designed multi-ring phase-only pupil filters in the illumination path of a 4Pi microscope the height of the sidelobes of the point spread function substantially reduced, so that there is no ambiguity in the 3D image. Then, an axial resolution up to four times higher than that of single-photon confocal microscope can be effectively achieved.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Optica, Universidad de Valencia, Burjassot 46100, Spain. manuel.martinez@uv.es
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez-Corral
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Caballero
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Andrés
mesh_terms: D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008962:Models, Theoretical