ABSTRACT
In electromagnetics (optics, e.g.) the concept spatial resolution plays a key role in many problems, as it is well-known [155, 38, 54, 176, 13, 58]. Despite the concept’s importance, it does not enter any of the fundamental equations of electrodynamics [Maxwell-Lorentz equations + Schro¨dinger (Dirac) equation] in a direct manner, so to speak. In the literature many different definitions of the limit for the spatial resolution are (and have been) used, and intense discussions concerning “the best definition” have taken place among researchers over the years. Not least from an experimental point of view it is of importance to understand whether there exists a fundamental limit for how high a spatial resolution one can obtain. For an experimentalist seeking to resolve finer and finer details in a given structure (of, e.g., a solid) it is obvious that all probing techniques run into the spatial resolution limit problem in the end.
