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An optical instrument is said to be diffraction-limited if it has reached this limit of resolution performance. Other factors may affect an optical system's performance, such as lens imperfections or aberrations , but these are caused by errors in the manufacture or calculation of a lens, whereas the diffraction limit is the maximum resolution ...
As explained below, diffraction-limited resolution is defined by the Rayleigh criterion as the angular separation of two point sources when the maximum of each source lies in the first minimum of the diffraction pattern of the other.
For completeness, Bragg diffraction is a limit for a large number of atoms with X-rays or neutrons, and is rarely valid for electron diffraction or with solid particles in the size range of less than 50 nanometers. [30]
The fastest f-number for the human eye is about 2.1, [8] corresponding to a diffraction-limited point spread function with approximately 1 μm diameter. However, at this f-number, spherical aberration limits visual acuity, while a 3 mm pupil diameter (f/5.7) approximates the resolution achieved by the human eye. [9]
The former corresponds to the ideal, diffraction-limited, imaging system with a circular pupil. Its transfer function decreases approximately gradually with spatial frequency until it reaches the diffraction-limit, in this case at 500 cycles per millimeter or a period of 2 μm.
diffraction pattern matching Dawes' limit. Dawes' limit is a formula to express the maximum resolving power of a microscope or telescope. [1] It is so named after its discoverer, William Rutter Dawes, [2] although it is also credited to Lord Rayleigh. The formula takes different forms depending on the units.
The ability of a lens to resolve detail is usually determined by the quality of the lens, but is ultimately limited by diffraction.Light coming from a point source in the object diffracts through the lens aperture such that it forms a diffraction pattern in the image, which has a central spot and surrounding bright rings, separated by dark nulls; this pattern is known as an Airy pattern, and ...
Diffraction limit: The detail of a physical object that an optical instrument can reproduce in an image has limits that are mandated by laws of physics, whether formulated by the diffraction equations in the wave theory of light [3] or equivalently the uncertainty principle for photons in quantum mechanics. [4]