Incoherent, non-invasive and non-scanning superoscillation-based microscope for super-resolution imaging

The superoscillation phenomenon, since it was first observed in the time variation of quantum systems, has become a research hotspot in optics. Recently, it has been vividly presented that one could achieve far field super-resolution imaging using a superoscillation lens instead of a conventional lens. Notwithstanding, confined by the coherent illumination and the complex scanning imaging mechanism, those systems have serious drawbacks in large field super-resolution imaging, such as the off-axis deformation, low imaging speed and strong sidelobe noise. In this paper, we report an incoherent, non-invasive and no-scanning superoscillation based microscope with a small numerical aperture, which, in principle, could effectively alleviate those limitations. We verify that, by installing a superoscillation element behind an imaging lens, a sub-diffraction point spread function with strongly suppressed sidelobes can be obtained. The experimental results of complex targets imaging demonstrate its feasibility and effectiveness in far field non-scanning imaging, where targets with detailed structures smaller than 71% of the Rayleigh Criterion are well distinguished. •An arbitrary narrow PSF can be obtained by a hybrid SOE design method.•A sub-diffraction focal-spot with continues suppressed sidelobes is obtained•Without scanning, the large field, real time superresolution imaging is realized.•The precise hybrid SOE is fabricated utilizing a three-steps procedure.•The imaging robustness is guaranteed using an incoherent illumination scheme.