Solid immersion axicon: maximizing nondiffracting or Bessel beam resolution.

A new type of optical configuration--a solid immersion axicon (SIAX)--is proposed. Similar to a solid immersion lens for Gaussian beams, a SIAX increases the diffraction-limited resolution for propagating Bessel beams by a factor of the refractive index of the media. For incident radial polarization, the scheme generates the smallest focal spot available for nondiffracting beams. The configuration can be implemented with either refractive or diffractive axicons. The scheme may find use in microscopy, imaging, lithography and data storage, and other applications requiring nondiffracting beam characteristic features such as very large focal depth.