High-resolution optical diffraction microscopy.

In an optical diffraction microscopy experiment, one measures the phase and amplitude of the field diffracted by the sample and uses an inversion algorithm to reconstruct its map of permittivity. We show that with an iterative procedure accounting for multiple scattering, it is possible to visualize details smaller than lambda/4 with relatively few illumination and observation angles. The roles of incident evanescent waves and noise are also investigated.