International Journal of Photonics and Optical Technology
Vol. 2, Iss. 3, pp: 31-36, Sept. 2016
Experimental Validation of Pareto Optimality in
Characteristics of the Image Plane Point Spread
Functions obtained by Pupil Plane Phase Filtering
Somparna Mukhopadhyay1, Atri Haldar2, Lakshminarayan Hazra3*
1,3
Department of Applied Optics & Photonics, University of Calcutta, JD-2, Sector III, Salt Lake, Kolkata, India
2
Department of Photonics, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus, Finland
lakshminarayanhazra@gmail.com
(Received 18th September, 2016; Accepted 24th September, 2016; Published: 27th September, 2016)
Abstract- Pupil plane filtering is a real time, non-scanning
technique for tailoring the Point Spread Function (PSF) in
imaging systems. By placing lossless phase filters on the pupil
of an imaging system, the central lobe of the PSF can be
narrowed down to improve the resolution capability of the
system. But this effect is accompanied by enhancement of
peak intensity in the side lobes, so that the full benefits of
narrowing down the central lobe cannot be harnessed. This
behavior can be described by Pareto optimal relationship
between width of the central lobe and the peak intensity in the
sidelobes. This paper reports our investigations on
experimental validation of theoretically determined Pareto
fronts.
Key Words: Pareto Optimality, Lossless filter, Phase Filters,
Point Spread Function, Superresolution, Spatial Light
Modulator.
1. I TRODUCTIO
The resolving power of an optical imaging system is
limited by several factors. The residual aberrations of the
imaging lens severely degrade the resolution capability. Even
for an aberration free objective, due to the diffraction effects
arising out of finite size of aperture of the objective, image of
a bright point object on a dark background is not a bright
point; rather it turns out to be a blur patch. The size of the blur
patch poses a fundamental limit on the minimum distance at
which two neighboring points can be resolved. The intensity
distribution in the image corresponding to a point object is
known as intensity Point Spread Function (PSF). For a
diffraction limited imaging system with circular aperture, the
PSF is called Airy pattern. The Airy pattern consists of a
central lobe surrounded by bright and dark rings with
gradually diminishing intensity. In order to circumvent the
limitations imposed by the diffraction effects on the resolution
of an optical imaging system, different scanning/non scanning
techniques are now being used increasingly. Nearfield
Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM) [1-2] and a series of
interesting farfield techniques [3-6] have been investigated in
last few decades. Superresolution by pupil plane filtering,
originally proposed by Toraldo Di Francia, [7-9] is one of the
non scanning far field technique where the PSF of an optical
imaging system is ‘tailored’ by placing phase/amplitude filters
on the pupil of the system. Using this technique, the PSF can
be modified directly without any post processing of data.
Copyright © IJPOT, All Rights Reserved
Following the trail of Toraldo di Francia, different filters have
been explored for this purpose [10-15]. In most of these cases,
the filters consist of annular zones with variation of either
amplitude transmittance or complex amplitude transmittance
among the annular zones. In the latter case, the studies were
mostly limited to a π-phase shift between adjacent zones. With
the advent of diffractive optics technology, Sales and Morris
[16] explored the use of multiphase structures. In these
structures the phase transmission of each zone can assume an
arbitrary value in the interval (0,2π). In recent past, different
lossy, lossless and leaky filters have been explored for
superresolution. Each of them has also been studied for the
two cases: continuous filters and piecewise continuous filters.
The latter is explored obviously to alleviate fabrication
problems [17-23].
However, any attempt for narrowing the central lobe of the
PSF is accompanied by increase in peak intensity of the
neighboring side lobes. The overall effect is reduction of
contrast in the final image. Also, the increase in side lobe
intensity is accompanied by decrease of intensity in the central
lobe; this decrease in central intensity from that for a uniform
pupil is expressed by a ratio known as ‘Strehl Ratio’. Larger is
the value of the Strehl Ratio, more useful is the filter in
practical applications. The inverse relationship between the
width of the central lobe and the peak intensity in the side
lobes may be looked upon as a Multi Objective (MO)
optimization problem. Instead of having a unique solution, an
MO problem typically has a set of acceptable trade-off
solutions called Pareto optimal [24] solutions forming a curve
in the objective function space. This is commonly known as
Pareto front. The Pareto front divides the objective space in
two regions, namely, an infeasible region, and a suboptimal
region. A solution belongs to Pareto set if there is no other
solution that can improve one objective without degrading the
other.
In the problem under view, the width of the central lobe of
the transverse PSF and the peak intensity in the side lobes are
two such conflicting objectives to be optimized. In a recent
communication [25], the Pareto fronts for optimal phase filters
were determined theoretically by means of a novel global
optimization technique called ‘Particle Swarm Optimization’
[26-27]. Subsequently an experimental validation study of the
theoretical observations was carried out, and the same is
reported in this paper.
Page 31
 International Journal of Photonics and Optical Technology
Vol. 2, Iss. 3, pp: 31-36, Sept. 2016

First, the aforementioned Pareto Optimal filters are With the wave length λ of the laser beam used is 0.6328
realized on a reflective, phase only, Liquid Crystal on Silicon µm, and the focal length of the lens f = 1000 mm, the radius of
(LCoS) Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). The versatility of the m-th zone of the lens is given by
SLMs based on liquid crystal (LC) and silicon materials make rm = (2 m λ f )
1/ 2
(1)
these devices extremely useful in numerous applications; e.g. For the lens consisted of the first eight zones, r8 = 3.181
real time digital holography [28], optical tweezers [29], mm. The actual radii and the normalized radii of eight zones of
diffractive optical element [30] to name a few. Incorporation the lens are given in the Table 1.
of the silicon backplane with Complementary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry increases the fill-factor ratio, Table 1: Radii of different zones of the lens
providing thereby higher resolution. The diffraction efficiency m Actual radius(mm) Normalized radius
is higher for the phase mode, and for larger values of fill- 1 1.124 0.353
factor. With the phase filters synthesized on the SLM, the far 2 1.590 0.499
field intensity distribution is recorded and the Pareto front 3 1.948 0.612
between the width of the central lobe of the PSF and the peak 4 2.249 0.707
side lobe intensity is determined experimentally. 5 2.515 0.790
6 2.755 0.866
2. SY THESIS OF THE COMBI ATIO OF A PHASE 7 2.976 0.935
FILTER O A IMAGI G LE S O A PHASE SLM 8 3.181 1.000
In order to synthesize the total effect on the PSF when a
phase filter is used on the pupil of an imaging lens, the filter
3. EXPERIME TAL ARRA GEME T
phase is superposed on the lens phase, and a modulo 2π
In the schematic diagram of the experimental arrangement
operation is carried out over the total phase to obtain the
shown in Fig.2 light from He-Ne laser (λ = 632.8 nm) source
diffractive phase which is implemented on the SLM. This is
is first spatially filtered and collimated. The Neutral Density
elaborated below with an illustrative example of a two zone
(ND) filter is used to reduce the amount of light and polarizer
filter with zero phase in the inner zone and π phase in the outer
P1 is used to control the intensity of the beam.
zone. The normalized radii of the inner and outer zones are
taken as 0.358 and 1.000 respectively.
Assuming the phase function for the lens as φL, the phase
distribution in the filter as φF, the superposition of filter phase
on the lens phase results in the combined phase (φL + φF).
Since the added phase goes beyond 2π, it has been converted
into a modulo 2π represented as (φL + φF)mod 2π shown in
Fig.1.

Fig. 2: Schematic diagram of the experimental arrangement

The ‘HOLOEYE’- ‘PLUTO’, phase only, reflective, LCoS

SLM is being driven by the computer console COM2 in ‘clone
mode’ where any feature that is being shown on the computer
screen is also displayed on to the SLM screen. A series of
simulated phase filters superposed on a lens function are
displayed on the computer screen and so also on the SLM
screen. Vertically polarized light is required for the SLM to
work as a pure phase modulator. After passing through the
second polarizer P2, the light becomes vertically polarized and
is incident on the cubic beam splitter. Part of the beam is
reflected from the interface of the two halves of the beam
splitter, and is not being used in the experiment. The other part
is transmitted through the interface, and is reflected from the
surface of the SLM with introduced phase corresponding to
the filter displayed on it. This beam is captured by a camera
which is also computer (COM1) controlled and the
corresponding intensity distribution at the transverse image
Fig. 1: Superposition of filter phase onto the lens phase and corresponding plane is recorded. Standard image analysis software is used to
diffractive phase evaluate the FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) of the
central lobe and the peak intensity in the first side lobe from
Copyright © IJPOT, All Rights Reserved
Page 32

the intensity distribution. The procedure is repeated for a series
of phase filters displayed on the SLM.
4. RESULTS A D DISCUSSIO
The experiment is carried out for a series of 2-zone and 3-
zone filters, and the mutual exclusivity between the width of
the central lobe of the transverse PSF and the peak intensity in
the first side lobe is verified experimentally. Pareto fronts were
experimentally determined for 2-zone and 3-zone filters, and
the results tallied with the theoretically determined fronts, with
minor variations. But the experimentally determined Pareto
fronts corresponding to filters with number of zones higher
than three did not agree with the theoretical results. The reason
is explained below with the help of Figs. 3(a) and 3(b). While
formulating the far field parameters theoretically, we assumed
illumination by a uniform plane wave. But in practice, the
laser beam is Gaussian, and along any azimuth, from the
optical axis to the outer region, the amplitude/intensity of the
Gaussian beam drops considerably [Fig.3(a)] Therefore, for
filters with lower number of zones, e.g. two or three, the outer
zones have light intensity, somewhat comparable with the
intensity at the inner zones; but for filters with larger number
of zones, e.g. four and above, the outer zones have light
intensity that is insignificant compared to the intensity of inner
zones, and, so, the effect of increase in zone number is not
apparent. This is apparent from the sketches of 2-zone, 3-zone
and 4-zone filters for the same outer diameter displayed in Fig.
3(b).
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3: (a) 1st zone: 0 < r < r1; 2nd zone: r1 < r < r2; 3rd zone: r2 < r < r3; 4th zone: r3
<r < r4 for a 4 zone filter; (b) A (i) 2-zone, (ii) 3-zone, (iii) 4-zone phase filter
with same outer diameter
At first, intensity distribution is captured just by displaying
a lens function on the SLM. It can be considered as
experimentally obtained Airy pattern as shown in Fig. 4(ii).
Copyright © IJPOT, All Rights Reserved
International Journal of Photonics and Optical Technology
Vol. 2, Iss. 3, pp: 31-36, Sept. 2016
(i) (ii)
Fig. 4: Intensity distribution of Airy pattern (i) Theoretical, (ii) Experimental
The peak intensity of the central lobe in Fig. 4(ii) is
represented by the highest gray scale value (~ 240) along the
ordinate. To obtain the Strehl Ratio for any filter, the highest
gray scale value of the central lobe of the corresponding
intensity distribution is divided by 240. The FWHM is
obtained, in Fig. 4(ii) by the difference of the two coordinates
along the abscissa where intensity drops down to 50% of its
maximum value. However, a staircase effect is observed in all
the experimentally obtained intensity distributions. The reason
may be the digital input of the camera, giving rise to
quantization error resulting in this staircase effect.
After extensive numerical search carried out by particle
swarm optimization algorithm, the global optimization
technique adapted for the problem at hand, six PSFs obtained
by using 2 zone filters were identified as constituent members
of the corresponding Pareto front. The six PSFs are shown in
(i) of each of the Figs. 5(a)-5(f). The corresponding 2-zone
filters were synthesized on an SLM as mentioned above to
synthesize the combined effect of focussing and filtering on
the SLM, and the resulting PSFs are shown in (ii) in each of
the Figs. 5(a)-5(f).
Although the peak intensity in the first side lobe is usually
the maximum intensity attained in any of the sidelobes
neighbouring the central lobe, search for peak sidelobe
intensity was extended over first four sidelobes. Normalized
value for peak intensity in the neighbouring side lobes is
obtained by finding out the maximum gray scale value attained
anywhere within the four side lobes, and then by normalizing
it with the maximum gray scale value attained by the
corresponding central lobe.
(i) (ii)
(a)
Page 33
 International Journal of Photonics and Optical Technology
Vol. 2, Iss. 3, pp: 31-36, Sept. 2016

(i) (ii) (i) (ii)

(b) (f)
Fig. 5: Six PSFs 5(a)-5(f) corresponding to six 2-zone filters constituting the
Pareto front; (i) theoretical (ii) experimental

Theoretically observed and experimentally obtained Pareto

fronts for 2-zone filters are shown in Fig. 6.

(i) (ii)
(c)

Fig. 6: Pareto front for 2-zone filter: (a) Theoretically observed, (b)
Experimentally obtained

Theoretically determined and experimentally obtained

PSFs for 3-zone filters constituting the Pareto front are shown
in Fig.7(a)-7(e).
(i) (ii)

(d)

(i) (ii)

(i) (ii) (a)

(e)

Copyright © IJPOT, All Rights Reserved

Page 34
 International Journal of Photonics and Optical Technology
Vol. 2, Iss. 3, pp: 31-36, Sept. 2016

The theoretically observed and experimentally obtained

Pareto front for 3-zone filters are shown in Fig.8

(i) (ii)
(b)

Fig. 8: Pareto front for 3-zone filter: (a) Theoretically observed, (b)
Experimentally obtained

In case of some of the 3-zone filters, the side lobes are

observed to be of unequal magnitude on either side of the
central lobe for some filters. This asymmetry is possibly due to
imperfect alignment of the optical set up used in the
experiment.
(i) (ii)
5. CO CLUSIO
(c) This paper reports an experimental verification of the
Pareto Optimality between width of the central lobe of the
transverse PSF and the peak intensity in the neighboring side
lobes of an optical imaging system. For two and three zone
filters discernible Pareto fronts akin to theoretical predictions
can be identified. The difference between the theoretical
results and experimental observations is occurring on account
of the difference in nature of illuminating wave. As mentioned
earlier, the theoretical results assume a uniform amplitude
illuminating wave, and the experiments are carried out with a
laser illumination with Gaussian variation in amplitude.
Nevertheless, the nature of the Pareto fronts shows distinctly
(i) (ii) similar nature, presenting thereby a validation of our
(d) conjecture. It remains to carry out the theoretical analysis for
Gaussian illumination to check the experimental results
correctly, or to carry out the experiment with a uniform top-hat
illumination for proper corroboration of the corresponding
theoretical results.

ACK OWLEDGME T
This work has been supported by the INSPIRE Fellow
program for Somparna Mukhopadhyay under the scheme of
“Assured Opportunity for Research Career” (AORC)/2010
[115] by the Department of Science & Technology (DST),
India.

REFERE CES
(i) (ii)
[1] E. Betzig, and J. K. Trautman, “Near-field optics:
(e)
microscopy, spectroscopy, and surface modification
beyond the diffraction limit,” Science, vol. 257, no.
Fig. 7. Five PSFs (a)-(e) corresponding to five 3-zone filters constituting the 5067, pp.189-195, 1992.
Pareto front; (i) theoretical (ii) experimental

Copyright © IJPOT, All Rights Reserved

Page 35

[2] M. A. Paesler, and P. J. Moyer, Near-Field optics:
Theory, introduction, and applications, John Wiley,
New York, 1996.
[3] S. W. Hell, and J. Wichmann, “Breaking the diffraction
resolution limit by stimulated emission: stimulated-
emission-depletion fluorescence microscopy,” Opt.
Lett., vol.19, no.11, pp.780-782, 1994.
[4] S. W. Hell, and M. Kroug, “Ground-state-depletion
fluorescence microscopy: A concept for breaking the
diffraction resolution limit,” Appl. Phys. B, vol. 60, no.
5, pp. 495-497, 1995.
[5] M. G. L. Gustafsson, “Surpassing the lateral resolution
limit by a factor of two using structured illumination
microscopy,” J. Microsc., vol. 198, no. 2, pp. 82-87,
2000.
[6] S. T. Hess, T.P. Girirajan, and M. D.Mason, “Ultra-high
resolution imaging by fluorescence photoactivation
localization microscopy,” Biophys. J., vol. 91, no. 11
pp. 4258-4272, 2006.
[7] G. Toraldo di Francia, “Nuovo pupille superresolventi,”
Atti Fond. Giorgio Ronchi, 7, pp. 366-372, 1952.
[8] G. Toraldo di Francia, “Super-gain antennas and optical
resolving power,” .uovo Cimento Suppl., 9, pp. 426-
438, 1952.
[9] G. Toraldo di Francia, “La Diffrazione Delle Luce,”
Edizioni Scientifiche Einaudi, 1958.
[10] A. I. Kartashev, “Optical systems with enhanced
resolving power,” Opt. Spectrosc., vol. 9, pp. 204-
206,1960.
[11] W. Lukosz, “Optical systems with resolving power
exceeding the classical limit,” J. Opt. Soc. Am., vol.
56, no. 11, pp.1463–1471, 1966.
[12] B. R. Frieden, “On arbitrarily perfect imagery with a
finite aperture,” Opt. Acta, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 795-807,
1969.
[13] G. R. Boyer, and M. Sechaud, “Superresolution by
Taylor filters,” Appl. Opt., vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 893-894,
1973.
[14] I. J. Cox, C. J. R. Sheppard, and T. Wilson,
“Reappraisal of arrays of concentric annuli as
superresolving filters,” J. Opt. Soc. Am., vol.72, no. 9,
pp. 1287-1291, 1982.
[15] Z. S. Hegedus, and V. Sarafis, “Superresolving filters in
confocally scanned imaging systems,” J. Opt. Soc. Am.
A, vol. 3, no. 11, pp. 1892-1896, 1986.
[16] T. R. M Sales, and G. M. Morris, “Diffractive
superresolution elements,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 14,
no 7, pp. 1637-1646, 1997.
[17] T. R. M. Sales, and G. M. Morris, “Axial
superresolution with phase-only pupil filters,” Opt.
Commun., vol. 156, no. 4, pp. 227-230, 1998.
Copyright © IJPOT, All Rights Reserved
International Journal of Photonics and Optical Technology
Vol. 2, Iss. 3, pp: 31-36, Sept. 2016
[18] S. Ledesma, J. Campos, J. C. Escalera, and M. J. Yzuel,
“Simple expressions for performance parameters of
complex filters, with applications to super-Gaussian
phase filters,” Opt. Lett., vol. 29, no. 9, pp. 932-934,
2004.
[19] M. Yun, L. Liu, J. Sun, and D. Liu, “Three-dimensional
superresolution by three-zone complex pupil filters,” J.
Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 272-277, 2005.
[20] X. Liu, L. Liu, D. Liu, and L. Bai, “Design and
application of three-zone annular filters,” Optik, vol.
117, no 10, pp. 453-461, 2006.
[21] C. J. R. Sheppard, J. Campos, J. C. Escalera, and S.
Ledesma, “Three-zone pupil filters”, Opt. Comm., vol.
281, no. 14, pp. 3623-3630, 2008.
[22] H. Zhu et al., “Quasi-achromatic superresolving phase
only pupil filters,” Opt. Commun., vol. 285, no. 24, pp.
5062-5067, 2012.
[23] S. Wang, X. Zhao, and C. Zhao, “Three-dimensional
focusing properties of Gaussian-dependence
superresolving filter,” Opt. Commun., vol. 290, no. pp.
8-13, 2013.
[24] V. Pareto, “Cours D’Economie Politique,” Vol. I and
Vol. II, F. Rouge, Lausanne (1886).
[25] S. Mukhopadhyay, and L.N. Hazra, “Pareto optimality
between width of central lobe and peak sidelobe
intensity in the far-field pattern of lossless phase-only
filters for enhancement of transverse resolution,”Appl.
Opt., vol.54, no. 31, pp. 9205-9212, 2015.
[26] J. Kennedy, and R. C. Eberhart, “Particle swarm
optimization,” Proc. IEEE International Conference on
Neural Networks IV, pp. 1942-1948, 1995.
[27] R. C. Eberhart, and J. Kennedy, “A new optimizer using
particle swarm theory,” Proc. IEEE 6th International
Symposium on Micro Machine and Human Science I,
pp. 39-43, 1995.
[28] S. Reichelt et al., “Full-range, complex spatial light
modulator for real-time holography,” Opt. Lett., vol.
37, no.11, pp.1955-1957, 2012.
[29] R. Eriksen, V. Daria, and J. Gluckstad, “Fully dynamic
multiple-beam optical tweezers,” Opt. Exp., vol. 10, no.
14, pp. 597-602, 2002.
[30] J. A. Davis, “Programmable diffractive optical
elements using spatial light modulators,” Proc. SPIE
1911, Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices and
Applications II, pp. 214, 1993.
Page 36