Abstract

We report direct observation of lateral focal patterns through an acrylic material to investigate the effects of aberrations caused by a planar dielectric interface. Numerical analyses based on vectorial Huygens–Fresnel diffraction theory were also performed to examine the behavior of three-dimensional point spread functions. Experimental and numerical results showed agreement of the behavior of the peak position in the focal patterns with changes in the interface position. Our approach has the potential to predict the effects of aberrations in confocal laser scanning microscopes and super-resolution applications.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

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