Design and fabrication of an optical probe with a phase filter for extended depth of focus.

The trade-off between spot size and depth of focus (DOF) often limits the performance of optical systems, such as optical coherence tomography and optical tweezers. Although researchers have proposed various methods to extend the DOF in free-space optics, many are difficult to implement in miniaturized optical probes due to space limitations. In this study, we present an optical probe with an extended DOF using a binary phase spatial filter (BPSF). The BPSF pattern was fabricated on the distal tip of an optical probe with a diameter of 1 mm by replica molding soft lithography, which can be easily implemented in a miniaturized optical probe due to its simple configuration. We optimized the BPSF pattern to enhance DOF, spot diameter, and light efficiency. To evaluate the fabricated endoscopic optical probe, we measured the three-dimensional point spread function of the BPSF probe and compared it with a probe without BPSF. The BPSF probe has a spot diameter of 3.56 μm and a DOF of 199.7 μm, while the probe without BPSF has a spot diameter of 3.69 μm and a DOF of 73.9 μm, representing a DOF gain of 2.7. We anticipate that this optical probe can be used in biomedical applications, including optical imaging and optical trapping techniques.