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

Kaifa Xin; Mengdie Hou; Ao Yang; Márton Gelléri; Hyun-Keun Lee; Antonio Virgilio Failla; Jiafeng Lu; Xianglong Zeng; Mischa Bonn; Jesper Lægsgaard; Xiaomin Liu

arXiv · 2609.04924

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

Kaifa Xin·Mengdie Hou·Ao Yang·Márton Gelléri·Hyun-Keun Lee·Antonio Virgilio Failla·Jiafeng Lu·Xianglong Zeng·Mischa Bonn·Jesper Lægsgaard·Xiaomin Liu

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Abstract

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.

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Kaifa Xin, Mengdie Hou, Ao Yang, Márton Gelléri, Hyun-Keun Lee, Antonio Virgilio Failla, Jiafeng Lu, Xianglong Zeng, Mischa Bonn, Jesper Lægsgaard, Xiaomin Liu. 2026-09-04. Relaxing Coherence Requirements on Laser Sources for Nanoscopy through Optical Fiber Technique. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04924

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