Schematic representation of microcylinder-assisted conventional, interference (a) and confocal microscopes (b) showing the imaging (red) and illumination (blue) beam path. The area marked by the green rectangle corresponds to the reference arm, which is apparent in case of an interference microscope and replaced by an absorber for conventional microscopy. Note that in the measurements a microsphere is used, in the simulation this is represented by a microcylinder (BSC: beam splitter cube).