Determination of the point spread function of layered metamaterials assisted with the blind deconvolution algorithm

We propose to use the blind deconvolution and its modification to extract the point spread function (PSF) of layered metamaterials from a SNOM measurement. The measurement results are processed using the blind deconvolution algorithm to reconstruct the real-valued non-coherent PSF, or using the modified blind deconvolution introduced in this paper to reconstruct the complex-valued coherent PSF. The two algorithms are tested in simulations with a layered metamaterial deposited on a thin metallic mask with test apertures. We show that the modified algorithm is capable of recovering the approximate shape of complex PSF with a sub-wavelength full width at half maximum from a measurement in which the apertures are larger than the wavelength.