ON TWO-POINT RESOLUTION OF IMAGING SYSTEMS

Abstract

In this paper a new criterion is proposed for optical two-point resolution, applicable to coherent, incoherent, and partially coherent imaging. Unlike classical resolution criteria, such as Rayleigh's, the new criterion takes account of the presence of errors in the observed intensity distributions. Based on a parameter estimation approach, it shows how the resolvability of the imaged point sources depends on these errors. Additionally, a test for the resolvability of the point sources from a given set of observations is presented. Moreover, a procedure is proposed for the computation of the errors having minimum energy among all errors undermining the resolution. The results presented include, as a special case, earlier results on two-point resolution of strictly incoherent imaging systems.