Wide band Fresnel super-resolution applied to capillary breakup of viscoelastic fluids

We report a technique based on Fresnel diffraction with white illumination that permits the resolution of capillary surface patterns of <100 nm. We investigate Rayleigh–Plateau-like instability on a viscoelastic capillary bridge and show that we can overcome the resolution limit of optical microscopy. The viscoelastic filaments are approximately 20 μ thick at the end of the thinning process when the instability sets in. The wavy distortions grow exponentially in time and the pattern is resolved by an image treatment that is based on an approximation of the measured rising flank of the first Fresnel peak.