Role of the immersion medium in the microscale spherical lens imaging

Abstract The role of the immersion medium in the microscale speherical lens imaging is studied. We find that when a microsphere lens is semi-immersed in the SU-8 resist, both the microsphere and the SU-8 resist can work as a lens. The microsphere lens forms the images from the small-k Fourier components of an object, and this image formation does not depend on the immersion of the SU-8 resist. The SU-8 resist can work as a lens and form the images from the large-k Fourier components. When the distance d between the focal spot of the SU-8 lens and the object is close, the clear large-k Fourier components image can be observed even without the microsphere.