Confocal microscopy enables direct observation of photonic nanojets

The photonic nanojets are objects that have waist diameters smaller than the diffraction limit as well as high intensity and low divergence. Patrick Ferrand and his colleagues at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France, have observed the nanojets directly using confocal microscopy to record stacked images of 1-, 3-, and 5m latex beads that were illuminated with a collimated beam. As a result, it showed that the 5m beads created the widest jets; the 3m beads has the highest increase in intensity, while 1m beads provided the weakest.