The 1 mm diameter superSILs (Knight Optical Ltd., UK) were made of cubic zirconia (ZrO2), the cubic crystalline form of zirconium dioxide (ZrO2). The lenses’ refractive index is 2.17 and the Abbe number is 33.54 at the wavelength of 512 nm. This provides a high refractive index with medium dispersion suitable for superSIL microscopy. The assemblies were characterized by use of a coordinate measuring machine (OGP SmartScope ZIP 250 Coordinate Measuring Machine) to ensure the angle between the platinum disk and the superSIL’s flat surface is <1° (Supplementary Fig. 2B).
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