Inherent error in interferometric surface plasmon microscopy

Surface plasmon microscopy (SPRM) usually employs high refractive index prism or high numerical aperture (NA) objective as coupling device to excite surface plasmon. Here we apply high NA oil-immersion objective considering k vector conditions of SPs and localization of SPs which provides better lateral resolution and less cross-talk between adjacent areas. However, performance of an objective based SPRM is often limited by the finite aperture of a physical objective which corresponds to sudden transition and limited bandwidth. Here we give a simplified model of the SPRM and numerically calculate how the sudden transition on the clear aperture edge causes inherent error. Notch filtering algorithm is designed to suppress the noisy ripples. Compared to the pupil function engineering technique, this technique makes both the sacrifice of NA and utilization of spatial light modulator unnecessary and provides a more compact system setup without decreasing the resolution and contrast.