resolution

(noun)

The degree of fineness with which an image can be recorded or produced, often expressed as the number of pixels per unit of length (typically an inch).

Related Terms

Examples of resolution in the following topics:

  • Limits of Resolution and Circular Aperatures

    • In optical imaging, there is a fundamental limit to the resolution of any optical system that is due to diffraction.
    • However, there is a fundamental maximum to the resolution of any optical system that is due to diffraction (a wave nature of light).
    • To increase the resolution, shorter wavelengths can be used such as UV and X-ray microscopes.
    • These techniques offer better resolution but are expensive, suffer from lack of contrast in biological samples and may damage the sample.
    • Although these techniques improve some aspect of resolution, they generally involve an enormous increase in cost and complexity.

  • Electron Microscopes

    • It can achieve better than 50 pm resolution and magnifications of up to about 10,000,000 times , whereas ordinary, nonconfocal light microscopes are limited by diffraction to about 200 nm resolution and useful magnifications below 2000 times.
    • Electron microscopes are very useful as they are able to magnify objects to a much higher resolution.

  • The Rayleigh Criterion

    • Along with the diffraction effects that we have discussed in previous atoms, diffraction also limits the detail that we can obtain in images. shows three different circumstances of resolution limits due to diffraction:

  • Enhancement of Microscopy

    • Electron microscopes use electron beams to achieve higher resolutions than are possible in optical microscopy.
    • Since electron beams have a much smaller wavelength than traditional light, the resolution of the resulting image is much higher.

  • Specialty Microscopes and Contrast

    • In optical microscopes, the better the contrast between the image and the surface it is being viewed on, the better the resolution will be to the viewer.
    • Atomic Force Microscopy: The AFM is a scanning probe type of microscopy with very high resolution and is one of the foremost tools for imaging at the nanoscale.

  • Resolution of the Human Eye

  • Microwaves

    • Sophisticated radar systems can map the Earth and other planets, with a resolution limited by wavelength.
    • Cosmic background radiation of the Big Bang mapped with increasing resolution.

  • Holography

    • One of the most common is a film very similar to photographic film (silver halide photographic emulsion), but with a much higher concentration of light-reactive grains, making it capable of the much higher resolution that holograms require.

  • The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

    • If a small aperture is used, the accuracy of both resolutions is the other way around.

  • Problems

    • If the cloud is unresolved (angular size smaller than the angular resolution of the detector), what is the net polarization observed?