Transverse superresolution and focal shift with rotational tunable phase mask

This paper reports the imaging characteristics of an optical system can be modified by our designed polarization pupil mask. The novel rotational symmetric polarization pupil mask design based on combination of half-wave and quarter-wave plates is introduced for realizing the focal shift and extending focal depth of an optical system and the procedure for designing is presented. Numerical results show when an appropriate rotational symmetric polarization pupil mask is used as an apodizer in the optical imaging system, it not only can effectively achieve the continuously focal shift in a small range and extend focal depth of the optimized system, but also can evidently increase the transverse resolution of the optimized system at the genuine focal plane.