title: Tight focusing with a binary microaxicon.
abstract: Using a near-field scanning microscope (NT-MDT) with a 100 nm aperture cantilever held 1 μm apart from a microaxicon of diameter 14 μm and period 800 nm, we measure a focal spot resulting from the illumination by a linearly polarized laser light of wavelength λ=532 nm, with its FWHM being equal to 0.58λ, and the depth of focus being 5.6λ. The rms deviation of the focal spot intensity from the calculated value is 6%. The focus intensity is five times larger than the maximal illumination beam intensity.
authors.affiliation: Image Processing Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 151 Molodogvardeyskaya Street, Samara 443001, Russia.
authors.forename: V V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Kotlyar
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Stafeev
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: O'Faolain
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Soifer