Near-field focusing of the dielectric microsphere

with wavelength scale radius

Hanming Guo,1,2,* Yunxuan Han,1 Xiaoyu Weng,1 Yanhui Zhao,2 Guorong Sui,1
Yang Wang,3 and Songlin Zhuang1
1
Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and System, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Lab of
Modern Optical System, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science
and Technology, 516 Jungong Rd, Shanghai 200093, China
2
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
Pennsylvania 16802, USA
3
Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
*
hmguo@usst.edu.cn

Abstract: We focus on physically analyzing the origins of the numerical

aperture ( NA ) and the spherical aberration of the microsphere with
wavelength scale radius. We demonstrate that the microsphere naturally has
negligible spherical aberration and high NA when the refractive index
contrast ( RIC ) between the microsphere and its surrounding medium is
about from 1.5 to 1.75. The reason is due to the spherical aberration
compensation arising from the positive spherical aberration caused by the
surface shape of the microsphere and the RIC and the negative spherical
aberration caused by the focal shifts due to the wavelength scale dimension
of the microsphere. We show that, only within the approximate region of
1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 with the proper radius r of microsphere, the microsphere
can generate a near-field focal spot with lateral resolution slightly beyond
λ 2n s , which is also the lateral resolution limit of the dielectric
microsphere. The r for each RIC can be obtained by optimizing r from
1.125λ no to 1.275λ no . Here λ , n s , and no are the wavelength in
vacuum and the refractive indices of microsphere and its surrounding
medium, respectively. For the case of the near-field focusing, we also
develop a simple transform formula used to calculate the new radius from
the known radius of microsphere corresponding to the original illumination
wavelength when the illumination wavelength is changed.
©2013 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (260.2110) Electromagnetic optics; (050.1960) Diffraction theory; (350.3950)
Micro-optics.

References and links

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1. Introduction
Breaking through the Abbe diffraction limit become a persistently hot topic in modern optics
[1–3]. In 2004, Chen et al. find that the transparent dielectric microsphere with wavelength
scale radius can generate a photonic nanojet (PNJ) [4]. The key properties of the PNJ are that
it is a non-evanescent and propagating beam with smallest lateral full-width at half-maximum
(FWHM) smaller than the Abbe diffraction limit λ 2 and can propagate over  2λ with low
divergence [5], where λ is the wavelength in vacuum. Moreover, most of authors think that
the PNJ is not the near-field focal spot and can extend to the outer near-field region of the
microsphere [6]. Since 2004, many authors [5–13] investigate both in theoretically and
experimentally the generating mechanism and the applications of the PNJ and the effects of
the physical parameters of microsphere on the PNJ. For the field of the imaging, detecting,
and lithography with nanoscale resolution, it is the most important to achieve the smallest
focal spot size, i.e., the highest resolution. However, the PNJ can appear for a wide range of
radii of the microsphere if the refractive index contrast ( RIC ) between the microsphere and
its surrounding medium is less than about 2:1, and it is easy to optimize the length of the PNJ
with respect to the radius of the microsphere and the RIC , but most of literatures [4–16] do
not clearly indicate what is the highest lateral resolution with the microsphere and what is the
optimal parameters of the microsphere to realize the highest lateral resolution. In this paper,
the lateral resolution of the microsphere (i.e., equivalent to the optical system) is defined by
the smallest FWHM of the near field focal spot [17] or the PNJ. Heifetz et. al [5] claim that
the smallest FWHM of the PNJ is as small as  λ 3 , but the basis seem to be Fig. 1(a) of Ref.

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7, where the smallest FWHM of the PNJ is 130nm for the microsphere with λ =400nm ,
refractive index n s =1.59 , and radius r =500nm . Actually, the spot shown in the Fig. 1(a) of
Ref. 7, corresponding to the  λ 3 FWHM, is the near-field focal spot instead of the PNJ.
Most of authors hence majorly focus how to generate the PNJ with smallest FWHM beyond
the Abbe diffraction limit λ 2 . Fletcher et. al [16] study the focusing of the micrsolens with
wavelength scale size, but they only demonstrate that the vector diffraction theory of Richards
and Wolf [18] overpredicts the focal spot size in the microlens with wavelength scale size.
Recently, the microsphere is used in nanolithography [14, 15] and nanoscale imaging [19,
20]. However, these authors [14, 15, 19, 20] do not tell us how to determine the actual values
of the refractive index and the radius of the microsphere in the experiments. In addition, in the
experiments [19, 20], all the samples are adjacent to the microsphere, so the focal spot of the
microsphere should be the near-field focal spot instead of the PNJ. With the development of
the micro/nano-fabrication technology, the solid immersion lens (SIL) of wavelength scale
size (called the nSIL) is recently fabricated and its focusing abilities are validated in
experiment [1, 21]. Further theoretical research demonstrates that the nSIL can generate a
near-field focal spot with lateral resolution beyond λ 2n s and has higher performance than
the macroscopic SIL [22]. We think intuitively that the microsphere might have the similar
function of the nSIL under the case of the plane wave illumination instead of the convergent
wave required by the SIL.
Therefore, the existing literatures on the focusing of the microsphere are quite abundant,
but they do not resolve the problems what is the highest lateral resolution with the
microsphere and what is the optimal parameters of the microsphere to realize the highest
lateral resolution. The natural question arises whether we can achieve higher lateral resolution
with the microsphere compared with the existing literatures and how to get it. These problems
are very important for researchers to clearly understand the lateral resolution limit of the
microsphere and to design the optimal refractive index and the radius of the microsphere
under the case of various illumination wavelengths and applications. In order to address this
concern, we abandon the complex Mie theory and only focus on the two basic problems, i.e.,
numerical aperture ( NA ) and the spherical aberration, of the microsphere. There are two
reasons. The first reason is that NA and the aberration are critical factors affecting the
focusing properties of an optical system. To achieve maximum lateral resolution, NA should
be as high as possible, whereas the aberration is inverse. The second reason is the well known
fact that there is seriously spherical aberration for a single macroscopic sphere. For the
microsphere with wavelength scale radius, whether is there spherical aberration? If it exist,
how to reduce the spherical aberration? What is the conditions of the microsphere without
spherical aberration?
In this paper, we restrict ourselves to investigation on the focusing properties of the
microsphere in the near-field region. We focus on physically analyzing the origins of the NA
and the spherical aberration of the microsphere with wavelength scale radius. We demonstrate
that the microsphere naturally has negligible spherical aberration and high NA within a
small range of RIC , which is helpful to determine the related parameters of the microsphere
with the near-field focal spot of high lateral resolution. The reason of the negligible spherical
aberration of the microsphere is due to the spherical aberration compensation arising from the
positive spherical aberration caused by the surface shape of the microsphere and the RIC
and the negative spherical aberration caused by the focal shifts [23–25] due to the wavelength
scale dimension of the microsphere. We show that, only within the approximate region of
1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 with the proper radius of the microsphere, the microsphere can generate the
near-field focal spot with lateral resolution slightly beyond λ 2n s , which is also the lateral
resolution limit of the dielectric microsphere. For simplicity, hereafter we call the
microsphere with the near-field focal spot of lateral resolution beyond λ 2n s as the optimal
microsphere (OMS). Compared with the nSIL, a prominent characteristic of the OMS is that

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the illuminating light is a plane wave instead of the convergent wave required by the SIL,
which means that one can use the arrays of OMSs to image or detect sample in wide range.
Moreover, the microspheres not only have comparable resolution with the nSIL, but also can
avoid the fabrication difficulty faced by the nSIL because the microspheres with various radii
and materials can be obtained commercially [26]. In addition, as the focusing of the
microsphere of wavelength scale are strongly affected by the diffraction effects
accompanying the scattering and by the interference of the waves transmitted through and
refracted by a microsphere [6], it is needed to make a very delicate balance of the
interferences by precisely designing the radius of the microsphere and the RIC . We expect
that, different for the macroscopic SIL, although the microsphere is assumed to have same n s
for different wavelengths of the illuminating lights, the radius of the OMS is wavelength
dependent. In order to deal with this problem, we develop the transform formula used to
calculate the new radius from the known radius of microsphere corresponding to the original
illumination wavelength when the wavelength of the illuminating light is changed. The work
in this paper is important for the high resolution imaging and nanolithography based on the
microsphere.
2. Analyses on the spherical aberration and NA of the microsphere
In this paper, the principle of the ray tracing and the definitions of the NA and the spherical
aberration are used. It is firstly needed to indicate that the positive values of ray tracing in the
diffraction of the small circular aperture with radius r > λ have recently been proved in
theory [23, 24] and experiment [27]. Shown in Fig. 1, the x polarized and monochromatic
plane wave incidence on a microsphere with radius r , refractive index n s , and center at the
point O , along the + z axis. no is the refractive index of the surrounding medium. Namely
RIC = n s no . Obeying the ray tracing process, a ray with incident angle θo intersects the
microsphere and the z axis at the points A , B , and F , respectively. θ s and θi are the
corresponding the refractive angles at the points A and B , respectively. Here θ i = θo . α is
the angle of the emergent ray with the −z axis. C is the intersection point of the z axis
makes with the microsphere and d is the distance from the point C to the point F . It is
noted that the polarization of the incident plane wave is not considered in the ray-optical
analysis and is only considered in the later calculations basing on the vector Kirchhoff theory
and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method.

Fig. 1. Schematic of a microsphere illuminated by a incident plane-wave.

As we known, the low aberration and high NA is the precondition of the optical system
with high lateral resolution, whereas there is seriously spherical aberration for a single
macroscopic sphere. Let's first examine the spherical aberration and NA of the microsphere.
Basing on the geometrical relations shown in Fig. 1, we can obtain the following formulae
α = 2θo − 2θs , (1)

d = r [cos(θo − α ) + sin(θo − α ) cot α − 1], (2)

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where θo and θ s meet the Snell law no sin θo = n s sin θ s . Equation (2) is only valid for the
point F outside microsphere. If the point F is inside microsphere, namely the points A and
B locating at the different side of the z axis, d = r [sin θo cot(θo − θs ) − cos θo − 1] .
When the microsphere is considered a thick lens, the point F moves toward the
microsphere with the increase of θo . For all rays, θo meets 0 ≤ θo < π 2 . It is easy to derive
that the point F is outside the microsphere for 0 ≤ θo < 2θ s , i.e., 0 ≤ θo < 2a cos(n s 2no )
and inside the microsphere for 2a cos(n s 2no ) < θo < π 2 . As the focal spot outside the
microsphere majorly arises from the focusing contributions of the rays with the incident angle
0 ≤ θo < 2θ s , we define the spherical aberration S = d max − d min , where, in terms of Eqs. (1)
and (2), d min ≈ 0 by setting θo = 2a cos(n s 2no ) − δ with a very small value δ = 0.00001 in
radians and d max approximately calculated by setting θo = δ . d max and d min are the
maximum and minimum values of d , respectively. For the microsphere, we define
NA = no sin α max , where the maximum value α max of α can be calculated from the
maximum value θo max = 2a cos(n s 2no ) − δ .
As we known, NA and the aberration are critical factors affecting the focusing properties
of an optical system. To achieve maximum lateral resolution, NA should be as high as
possible, whereas the aberration is inverse. In order to assure that S has no significant effects
on the focusing properties, the minimum requirement for S is S < λ 2no . Shown in Fig. 2,
as the validity of the ray tracing is restricted in r > λ , the RIC should be bigger than 1.5 for
S < λ 2no . In this case, both S and NA decrease with the increase of RIC . A tradeoff
between S and NA is needed. Moreover, due to θo max ≈ 2a cos(n s 2no ) , more rays will
directly intersect with the z axis at the inside of the microsphere with the increase of RIC .
As the effective wavelength in the microsphere is decreased a factor of 1 n s , the spherical
aberration among the points F inside microsphere is bigger for a given r . So it is improper
to choose too high RIC when one wants to achieve imaging with high lateral resolution. By
FDTD method, this qualitative analysis is also confirmed by our numerical calculations
performed with the various combinations of r and RIC with the range from 1.76 to 2. When
RIC ≤ 1.75 , NA ≥ 0.85 (see Fig. 2). Therefore, within the approximate range of
1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 , the microsphere has not only small S , but also high NA by nature.

Fig. 2. Relations between the spherical aberration S (blue solid curve), the numerical aperture
NA (green dashed curve) and the refractive index contrast RIC between the microsphere and
its surrounding medium.

In vector diffraction theories, researchers note that the diffraction focus is shifted the
geometrical focus and moves toward the optical system with small Fresnel number [23–25],
i.e., the focal shifts. The focal shifts only happen in the case of the small Fresnel number and
cannot be predicted by the classical vector diffraction theory developed by Richards and Wolf
[18] because of the Debye approximation used being only valid for the large Fresnel number

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that require the focus be many wavelengths away from the aperture [28]. Li [24] defines the
optical system with radius larger than one and smaller than ten wavelengths as a
nonconventional optical system, where the definition of the Fresnel number is N = r λa NA a
and the small circular aperture with the numerical aperture NAa and radius r is investigated.
So, the microsphere is the nonconventional optical system with small N . It is noted that,
because of the difference between the small aperture and the microsphere, NAa of the small
circular aperture is different from the NA of the microsphere defined before. λa is the
wavelength λ in vacuum for the small aperture and is majorly determined by the wavelength
in the microsphere (i.e., λa = λ n s ) for the microsphere, respectively. Next, we first focus on
the focal shifts of the small circular aperture, where vector Kirchhoff theory is used and the
three components of the electric field distribution along the z axis are [24]
A  ( NAa )  exp( jKτ )  1 
2
1

Ex ( z) =  cos Ω[4 + (1 − cos Ω ) cos Ω] 

2
 1 − jKτ   ,
4 4  τ 2
  θ =Ω (3a)

0
Ω
− jK  χ (θ , z )(1 + cos θ ) cos θ
exp( jKτ )
1
2

τ
sin θ dθ }
E y (z ) = 0, (3b)

A ( NAa ) 1 z   exp( jKτ )  1 

Ez ( z ) = cos Ω  + cos Ω  (1 − cos Ω ) cos Ω   1−  , (3c)
jKτ  θ =Ω
2

 τ
2
4 4 f  

with τ = [(1 + z f ) 2 − 2(z f )(1 − cos θ )]1 2 , χ (θ , z ) = 1 + τ −1[1 + (z f )][1 − ( jK τ ) −1 ] , K = kf

= 2π N (NAa ) 2 , and NA a = r f = sin Ω . A is the amplitude of the incident x polarized
plane wave.
We set NAa = 0.965 and utilize Eq. (3) to calculate the distribution of light intensity
along the + z axis [see Fig. 3(a) and 3(b)]. In Fig. 3(a) and 3(b), z = 0 denotes the position
of the geometrical focus and f is the focal length. Figure 3(a) shows that the focal shifts
decrease with the increase of r (blue solid line: r = 1.25λa ; red dashed line: r = 3λa ; green
dash-dotted line: r = 5λa ). Moreover, the focal shifts are not obvious when r > 5λa for the
small circular aperture, which means that the focal shifts might be small for the microspheres
with r > 5λa = 5λ n s .
In order to examine the contributions of each ray on the focal shifts for a given aperture,
we set NAa = 0.965 and r = 1.25λa and divide equally the wave front at the aperture into
five zones within the maximum aperture angle Ω [see Fig. 3(c)]. It is obviously seen from
Fig. 3(b) that the rays within the low zone will cause any bigger focal shifts. However, the
position ( −0.112f ) [see the blue solid line in Fig. 3(a)] of the actual focus slightly shifts
toward the small circular aperture from the focusing position ( 0.096f ) of the rays within the
fifth zone, which means that, for the microsphere, the actual focal spot will slightly shift the
focusing position of the rays corresponding to NA = no sin α max and locate at the inside
proximity of the rear surface of the microsphere. Meanwhile, the actual NA of the
microsphere is also slightly bigger than the NA (i.e., no sin α max ) defined before. In terms of
Fig. 3(b), we can find that, the small aperture used in Ref. 24 is assumed an aplanatic system,
but the spherical aberration actually exists. Moreover, the spherical aberration is negative for
the small aperture used in Ref. 24 when the above definition S = d max − d min is used, whereas
the spherical aberration predicated by the ray tracing procedure is positive for the
microsphere. Therefore, for the microsphere with small r , the minimum requirement for S

#180246 - $15.00 USD Received 21 Nov 2012; revised 21 Dec 2012; accepted 15 Jan 2013; published 24 Jan 2013
(C) 2013 OSA 28 January 2013 / Vol. 21, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 2439
is assumed as S < λ 2no in the before analyses, but the actual spherical aberration S will be
far smaller than S based on the ray tracing analysis (See Fig. 2) due to the spherical
aberration compensation caused by the focal shifts. On the basis of the above discussions, we
conclude that, because of the spherical aberration compensation arising from the positive
spherical aberration caused by the surface shape of the microsphere and the RIC and the
negative spherical aberration caused by the focal shifts due to the wavelength scale dimension
of the microsphere, although the illuminating light is a plane wave, the microsphere with
small r naturally has the characteristics of negligible S and high NA within the above
range of 1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 . We expect that, only within 1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 , the maximum
lateral resolution of the microsphere might be obtained due to the low aberration and high
NA being the precondition of the optical system with high lateral resolution. The principle of
choosing r is to make r as small as possible under the case of r > λ in order to obtain the
obvious focal shifts and make the focal spot of the microsphere locate at the rear surface of
the microsphere, which can be realized by the FDTD method.

Fig. 3. Focal shifts along the z axis of the small circular aperture with radius r and
NAa = 0.965 , where z = 0 denotes the position of the geometrical focus and f is the focal
length. (a) blue solid line: r = 1.25λa ; red dashed line: r = 3λa ; green dash-dotted line:
r = 5λa . (b) r = 1.25λa and the wave front at the aperture being divided equally into five
zones within the maximum aperture angle [see 3(c)]. Lines 1-5 correspond the five zones.

3. FDTD simulations and discussions

FDTD software is afforded by Lumerical Solutions, Inc. Auto-nonuniform meshing with
mesh accuracy 6 and minimum mesh step 0.25nm were used to get the most accurate results,
the auto-cutoff was set as 1× 10−5 to ensure the convergence of the obtained results, and the
boundary condition is the perfectly matched layer (PML).
As indicated in Section 2, the microsphere with small r naturally has the characteristics
of negligible S and high NA within the approximate range of 1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 . In general,
the electric field distribution on the focal plane of the optical system with high NA
illuminated by the linearly polarized plane wave is strongly asymmetric about the z axis,
with the highest lateral resolution (smallest FWHM) at the direction orthogonal to the
polarization of the incident wave [18, 22]. Therefore, for the in determining the lateral

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(C) 2013 OSA 28 January 2013 / Vol. 21, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 2440
resolution of the focal spot on the rear surface ( z = C shown in Fig. 1) of the microsphere,
we consider only the electric field intensity | E |2 along the y axis ( x = 0 ) for the x
linearly polarized plane wave. The parameters of r , RIC , and λ used in FDTD are shown
in Fig. 4 caption.
For a given λ and RIC within 1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 , we have FDTD simulations by
increasing the radius r with step 5nm from r > λ . Shown in Fig. 4(a)-4(d), the focal spot of
the microsphere can be situated at its rear surface by tuning r . Meanwhile, the microsphere
is the OMS, namely the lateral resolution (by FWHM) along the y axis of the microsphere
can be beyond λ 2n s in the near-field region. For example, the microsphere with
r = 490nm , RIC = 1.59 , and λ = 400nm , the lateral resolution is 120nm and slightly
better than 126nm calculated by λ 2n s and n s = RIC × no = 1.59 . Shown in Fig. 4(e),
within 1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 , for the six sets of RIC chosen arbitrarily by us, the OMS can be
obtained for proper r . However, if the RIC is outside the range of 1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 ,
regardless of how to tune r , the focal spot can be also situated at the rear surface of the
microsphere or the PNJs can be formed, but the lateral resolution is hardly beyond λ 2n s .
The reason is that, only within the approximate region of 1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 , the microsphere
has the characteristics of negligible S and high NA as discussed in Section 2. For the OMS,
the axial resolution along the z axis is usually dozens of nanometers [see Fig. 4(e)].
As indicated in Section 1, different for the macroscopic SIL, although the OMS is
assumed to have same n s for different λ of the illuminating lights, the r of the OMS is
wavelength dependent. In terms of the six sets of RIC and r given in the caption of Fig. 4,
for λ = 400nm , r is from 450nm to 510nm, namely from 1.125λ no to 1.275λ no .
Morover, the bigger the RIC , the smaller the r , which means that, in fact, the r for each
RIC can be obtained by optimizing r from 1.125λ no to 1.275λ no . Obviously, without
too amount of computations, one may easily calculate the r of the OMS corresponding to
each RIC with range from 1.5 to 1.75 for a fixed λ (called the original illumination
wavelength) by the FDTD method or the Mie theory beforehand. If one can calculate the new
r from the known r of the OMS corresponding to the original illumination wavelength
when the wavelength of the illuminating light is changed, it is convenient and interesting for
applications of the OMS. In the following, we will deal with this problem.
When λ is given and the polarization of the plane wave is not considered, the factors
affecting the focusing of the microsphere are its r and the RIC . The above analyses and the
FDTD simulation results show that the S and the NA explain well the near-field focusing
of the microsphere and predicate the RIC of the OMS. It is noted that, as indicated before,
the actual NA is slightly bigger than the NA (i.e., no sin α max ) defined before, which could
not be calculated accurately for the microsphere. In terms of the Snell law and Eq. (2), the
invariant RIC can assure that both the tracks of rays in the microsphere and the value of α
remain unchanged regardless of λ . Meanwhile, the S is proportional to r [see Eq. (2)]
because it is calculated by d . If the ratio of the S to the wavelength λ no remains
unchanged, rno λ is invariable. In addition, the focal shifts are determined by the ratio of the
r to the wavelength

#180246 - $15.00 USD Received 21 Nov 2012; revised 21 Dec 2012; accepted 15 Jan 2013; published 24 Jan 2013
(C) 2013 OSA 28 January 2013 / Vol. 21, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 2441
 2
Fig. 4. Electric field intensity ( | E | ) distribution in the yz plane of the microsphere [(a)-(d)]
and (e) the variation of the lateral resolution (o) along the y axis and the axial resolution (*)
along the z axis with the RIC . The white circle denotes the contour of the microsphere. The
parameter no : (a)-(c) and (e) no = 1 and (d) no = 1.34 . The parameter λ : (a)-(c) and
(e) λ = 400nm , and (d) λ = 355nm . The parameter RIC : (a) RIC = 1.5 , (b) and (d)
RIC = 1.59 , and (c) RIC = 1.75 . The radius r of the microsphere: (a) r = 510nm , (b)
r = 490nm , (c) r = 450nm , and (d) r = 325nm . In (e), six sets of parameters are used:
RIC = 1.5 , r = 510nm ; RIC = 1.59 , r = 490nm ; RIC = 1.63 , r = 480nm ; RIC = 1.67 ,
r = 470nm ; RIC = 1.7 , r = 460nm ; RIC = 1.75 , r = 450nm .

λ no .Therefore, for the fixed RIC , if the ratio rno λ remains unchanged, the OMS can still
be obtained and its new radius r ′ can be expressed as
r ′ = rno λ ′ no′ λ , (4)
where the superscript prime denotes the corresponding new parameters.

#180246 - $15.00 USD Received 21 Nov 2012; revised 21 Dec 2012; accepted 15 Jan 2013; published 24 Jan 2013
(C) 2013 OSA 28 January 2013 / Vol. 21, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 2442
 As a example, for the OMS with the λ = 400nm , r = 490nm , RIC = 1.59 and no = 1
[see Fig. 4(b)], if the new wavelength λ ′ = 355nm and no′ = 1.34 , the new radius r ′
calculated by Eq. (4) is 325nm . Shown in Fig. 4(d), under the case of λ ′ = 355nm ,
r ′ = 325nm , RIC = 1.59 , and no′ = 1.34 , the lateral resolution along the y axis is 80nm
and slightly better than 83nm calculated by λ 2n s′ and n s′ = RIC × no′ = 2.1306 . Figure 4(d)
is almost identical with Fig. 4(b) except the spatial size (see the coordinates), which means
that the transform Eq. (4) is suitable.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, we focus on physically analyzing the origins of the NA and the spherical
aberration of the microsphere with wavelength scale radius. We demonstrate that the
microsphere naturally has negligible S and high NA within the approximate region of
1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 , whose reason is due to the spherical aberration compensation arising from
the positive spherical aberration caused by the surface shape of the microsphere and the RIC
and the negative spherical aberration caused by the focal shifts due to the wavelength scale
dimension of the microsphere. We show that, only within the approximate region of
1.5 ≤ RIC ≤ 1.75 with the proper r , the OMS can be realized, namely the lateral resolution
of its near-field focal spot slightly beyond λ 2n s , which is also the lateral resolution limit of
the dielectric microsphere. The r for each RIC can be obtained by optimizing r from
1.125λ no to 1.275λ no . As the focusing of the microsphere are strongly affected by the
diffraction effects accompanying the scattering and by the interference of the waves
transmitted through and refracted by a microsphere, different for the macroscopic SIL,
although the OMS is assumed to have same n s for different wavelengths of the illuminating
lights, the radius of the OMS is wavelength dependent. In order to deal with this problem, we
develop a simple transform formula used to calculate the new radius from the known radius
of OMS corresponding to the original illumination wavelength when the wavelength of the
illuminating light is changed. Compared with the nSIL, the illuminating light incidence on the
OMS is a plane wave instead of the convergent wave required by the SIL, which means that
one can use the arrays of OMSs to image or detect sample in wide range. Moreover, the
microspheres not only have comparable resolution with the nSIL, but also can avoid the
fabrication difficulty faced by the nSIL because the microspheres with various radii and
materials can be obtained commercially. In this paper, our physical analyses on the origins of
the NA and the spherical aberration of the microsphere clearly indicate what is the highest
lateral resolution with the microsphere and what is the optimal parameters of the microsphere
to realize the highest lateral resolution, which are very important for researchers to clearly
understand the lateral resolution limit of the microsphere and to design the optimal refractive
index and the radius of the microsphere under the case of various illumination wavelengths
and applications. The work in this paper is important for the high resolution imaging and
nanolithography based on the microsphere.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China
(2011CB707504), the Leading Academic Discipline Project of Shanghai Municipal
Government (S30502), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61178079 and
61137002), the Fok Ying-Tong Education Foundation, China (121010), the Foundation for
the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of PR China (201033), and the
Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (STCSM) (11JC1413300).

#180246 - $15.00 USD Received 21 Nov 2012; revised 21 Dec 2012; accepted 15 Jan 2013; published 24 Jan 2013
(C) 2013 OSA 28 January 2013 / Vol. 21, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 2443