Patent ID: 7449688

Claim:
A method for deconvolving far-field optical images for improved image resolution, comprising: positioning a near-field optical probe source at specific regions of an object to be imaged which correspond to specific pixels in far-field imaging modalities; moving the probe source with respect to a surface of the object to obtain associated detailed near-field information on the relative heights of point sources on the surface and detailed information on borders of the object; obtaining far-field optical image data corresponding to the object through a lens simultaneously with obtaining said near field information; moving the object to be imaged with respect to said lens with nanometric precision using a scanned probe microscope; recording said far-field optical data and any additional information the scanned probe microscope can provide on height, optical or other parameters of the object from at least one near-field image; determining the point spread function (PSF) of the far-field imaging lens using the near-field information; incorporating the recorded near-field information from the scanned probe microscope with said far-field data in deconvolution algorithms for added precision of the far-field imaging to obtain a deconvolved super-resolution image of the object to be imaged.