title: Optical equivalence between phase-diversity homodyne detection microscopy and confocal microscopy.
abstract: We investigated the optical properties of a homodyne scanning optical microscope (HSOM) with phase-diversity detection. We found that an HSOM is a coherent imaging system and has the same coherent transfer function as a confocal scanning optical microscope (CSOM). In addition, the depth discrimination ability of an HSOM is the same as that of a CSOM. The resolution of an HSOM can be improved by inserting an annular aperture in the optical path of either the signal or reference beams without reducing the signal intensity.
authors.affiliation: Hitachi, Ltd., Central Research Laboratory, Tokyo, Japan. shigeharu.kimura.jb@hitachi.com
authors.forename: Shigeharu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kimura
mesh_terms: D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods*; D055620:Optical Phenomena