Rayleigh resolution limit

Short tutorial

The Rayleigh criterion is the widely accepted criterion for the minimum resolvable detail. The imaging process is said to be diffraction-limited when the first diffraction minimum of the image of one source point coincides with the maximum of another.

For a circular aperture with a diameter D, the angular Rayleigh limit, θ, is for a given wavelength, λ:

Note the simple relation between the resolution limit and the wavelength and aperture size. Halving the wavelength, or doubling the aperture size, will lead to twice as good resolution capabilites.

Related links:
Angular resolution at wikipedia
Rayleigh criterion at hyperphysics

Applet instructions

The left scrollbar guides how close the point sources are apart. The middle scrollbar lets you alter the wavelength used for imaging -- which effectively sets the imaging resolution in our setting. Clicking the button on the right sets the points exactly to the Rayleigh limit for the chosen wavelength.

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