Introduction

We show animated images of the elecromegnetic field distribution in the focal region of a parabolic mirror with high numerical aperture.

Parabolic mirrors are not very common in optical imaging. However, they have ideal focusing properties in a stage scanning confocal microscope. Therefore we compare the results for the confined fields in the focus of a parabolic mirror microscope with those of a conventional microscope.

An extensive description of the involved theory and further information can be found in our publication [1], the references therein, and the PhD thesis of one of us [2].

Here we show results for focusing differently polarized optical modes, namely linearly, circularly, radially and azimutally polarized, in a homogeneous medium and for focusing them onto a dielectric surface.

[1]

M. A. Lieb and A. J. Meixner, "A high numerical aperture parabolic mirror as imaging device for confocal microscpy," Opt. Express 8, 458-474 (2001), http://www.opticsexpress.org/oearchive/source/30471.htm.

[2]

M. A. Lieb, Mikroskopie mit Parabolspiegeloptik. Theorie, Aufbau und Charakterisierung eines kombinierten konfokalen und nahfeld-optischen Mikroskops für die Einzelmolekül-Spektroskopie bei tiefen Temperaturen, (Dissertation, Universität Siegen, 2001; Books on Demand, Norderstedt, Germany, 2002, ISBN 3-8311-3424-3). [as PDF file, 3.48 MB, or order at www.amazon.de or at www.libri.de]

System requirements: to play the movies you need the DivX-codec from DivXNetworks, Inc. (see also)