Hemispherical SIL: Theoretically capable of increasing the numerical aperture of an optical system by , the index of refraction of the material of the lens.
Weierstrass SIL (superhemispherical SIL or superSIL): the height of the truncated sphere is , where r is the radius of the spherical surface of the lens. Theoretically capable of increasing the numerical aperture of an optical system by .[2]
Applications of SIL
Solid immersion lens microscopy
All optical microscopes are
diffraction-limited because of the
wave nature of light. Current research focuses on techniques to go beyond this limit known as the
Rayleigh criterion. The use of SIL can achieve spatial resolution better than the diffraction limit in air, for both
far-field imaging [3][4] and
near-field imaging.
Optical data storage
Because SIL provides high spatial resolution, the spot size of
laser beam through the SIL can be smaller than diffraction limit in air, and the density of the associated optical data storage can be increased.
Offers advantages for semiconductor wafer emission microscopy which detects faint emissions of light (Photons) from electron-hole recombination under the influence of electrical stimulation.[citation needed]
^Barnes, W., Björk, G., Gérard, J. et al. "Solid-state single photon sources: light collection strategies" Eur. Phys. J. D (2002) 18: 197.
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e20020024
^R. Chen, K. Agarwal, C. Sheppard, J. Phang, and X. Chen, "A complete and computationally efficient numerical model of aplanatic solid immersion lens scanning microscope," Opt. Express 21, 14316-14330 (2013).
^L. Hu, R. Chen, K. Agarwal, C. Sheppard, J. Phang, and X. Chen, "Dyadic Green’s function for aplanatic solid immersion lens based sub-surface microscopy," Opt. Express 19, 19280-19295 (2011).