Swimming, diffracting, condensing

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe BEATING DIFFRACTION IN THE FAR FIELD Diffraction makes it impossible to resolve those features of an object that are smaller than the

wavelength of the light used to probe it. Yet this most basic principle of optics — known as the diffraction limit — has its exceptions. Perhaps the most well-known is that it applies only

to images produced in the 'far field', some distance away from the object. Consequently, it is possible to resolve subwavelength features in an object by scanning a probe (such as

the end of an optical fibre) through the optical field in the immediate vicinity of an object bathed in light — which is how a near-field scanning optical microscope works. This is a preview

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ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Swimming, diffracting, condensing. _Nature Phys_ 2, 651 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys435 Download citation * Issue Date: October 2006 * DOI:

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