Influence of source coherence and aperture distribution on the imaging properties in direct-view microscopy

We discuss the imaging properties of the bright-field direct-view microscope employing source and detector arrays with an arbitrary distribution of pinholes. In general, we show that coherent laser illumination will result in a significant degradation in the imaging, compared with the more traditional use of an incoherent light source. We discuss the imaging in terms of the partially coherent transfer function and illustrate our general predictions by considering the specific responses to straight-edge, point, and planar objects. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.