How to beat the Rayleigh resolution limit: A lecture demonstration
Wolfgang Ruecknera)
Harvard Science Center, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Costas Papaliolios
Department of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
~Received 6 July 2001; accepted 31 January 2002!
An experiment is described in which the effect of instrument aperture size on resolution is easily
demonstrated. Using diffraction as a tool rather than a limit to resolution, one can further
demonstrate the possibility of detecting the presence of more than one object, even when the
instrument cannot resolve the objects. © 2002 American Association of Physics Teachers.
@DOI: 10.1119/1.1463736