US Patent 9007451 Super-oscillatory lens apparatus and methods

An imaging apparatus is disclosed which uses a super-oscillatory lens to obtain sub-diffraction limit resolution. The super-oscillatory lens is arranged to receive a light beam from a light source, the lens having a pre-defined pattern to spatially modulate the light beam in amplitude and/or phase so that it focuses the light beam to a focus at a first focal point having a full width half maximum of less than half the wavelength. Collection optical elements are arranged to focus the first focal point to a second focal point conjugate to the first focal point. An object for imaging is scanned over the first focal point and a detector is arranged to collect light from a collection region centered on the second focal point.