STED microscopy with the azimuthally-polarized depletion beam

The azimuthally polarized beam always keeps a zero intensity at the center of the doughnut shaped pulse. As a result, it can be utilized to overcome the problem of not perfect zero in STED microscopy to exhibit a high resolution. This paper examines the utilization of this beam as the stimulated emission depletion pulse in STED microscopy and the results are compared with the effects of using a doughnut model generated by the linearly polarized lights with inserting the phase plates in lights. The calculations show that the azimuthally polarized beam has a great potential in the STED microscopy.

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