Sarfus

Sarfus is an optical quantitative imaging technique based on the association of:

Sarfus visualization is based on the perfect control of the reflection properties of polarized light on a surf, which leads to increase the axial sensitivity of optical microscope by a factor of around 100 without reducing its lateral resolution. Thus this new technique increases the sensitivity of standard optical microscope to a point that it becomes possible to directly visualize thin films (down to 0.3 nanometer) and isolated nano-objects in real-time but also in air or in water.

Principles

A recent study on polarized light coherence leads to the development of new supports – the surfs – having contrast amplification properties for standard optical microscopy in cross polarizers mode. Made of optical layers on an opaque or transparent substrate, these supports do not modify the light polarization after reflection even if the numerical aperture of the incident source is important. This property is modified when a sample is present on a surf, a non-null light component is then detected after the analyzer rendering the sample visible.