Relaxing Coherence Requirements on Laser Sources for Nanoscopy through Optical Fiber Technique

RESUMO

High numerical-aperture (NA) focusing of cylindrical vector beams (CVBs) typically requires costly, high-quality lasers to supply a stable vector pupil field. Here, we introduce fiber-conditioned vectorial nanofocusing, in which an optical-fiber-based mode-selective coupler projects a strongly distorted beam of a diode that costs two orders of magnitude less than the reference laser into radially or azimuthally polarized CVBs. A three-tolerance analysis clarifies its operating principle by establishing separate requirements for spatial state, temporal coherence and residual wavefront error. The resulting fields reproduce expected high-NA focal signatures and generate orientation-sensitive single-molecule excitation patterns consistent with reference-laser measurements, lowering the barrier to structured-light experiments.