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2010, Optics Letters
Imaging with a layered superlens is a spatial filtering operation characterized by the point spread function (PSF). We show that in the same optical system the image of a narrow sub-wavelength Gaussian incident field may be surprisingly dissimilar to the PSF, and the width of PSF is not a straightforward measure of resolution. FWHM or std. dev. of PSF give ambiguous information about the actual resolution, and imaging of objects smaller than the FWHM of PSF is possible. A multiscale analysis of imaging gives good insight into the peculiar scale-dependent properties of sub-wavelength imaging.
2010
Metal-dielectric layered stacks for imaging with sub-wavelength resolution are regarded as linear isoplanatic systems -a concept popular in Fourier Optics and in scalar diffraction theory. In this context, a layered flat lens is a one-dimensional spatial filter characterised by the point spread function. However, depending on the model of the source, the definition of the point spread function for multilayers with sub-wavelength resolution may be formulated in several ways. Here, a distinction is made between a soft source and hard electric or magnetic sources. Each of these definitions leads to a different meaning of perfect imaging. It is shown that some simple interpretations of the PSF, such as the relation of its width to the resolution of the imaging system are ambiguous for the multilayers with sub-wavelenth resolution. These differences must be observed in point spread function engineering of layered systems with sub-wavelength sized PSF.
Applied Physics A-materials Science & Processing, 2011
We demonstrate numerically the diffraction-free propagation of sub-wavelength sized optical beams through simple elements built of metal-dielectric multilayers. The proposed metamaterial consists of silver and a high refractive index dielectric, and is designed using the effective medium theory as strongly anisotropic and impedance matched to air. Further it is characterised with the transfer matrix method, and investigated with FDTD. The
We examine some of the optical properties of a metamaterial consisting of thin layers of alternating metal and dielectric. We can model this material as a homogeneous effective medium with anisotropic dielectric permittivity. When the components of this permittivity have different signs, the behavior of the system becomes very interesting: the normally evanescent parts of a P-polarized incident field are now transmitted, and there is a preferred direction of propagation. We show that a slab of this material can form an image with subwavelength details, at a position which depends on the frequency of light used. The quality of the image is affected by absorption and by the finite width of the layers; we go beyond the effective-medium approximation to predict how thin the layers need to be in order to obtain subwavelength resolution.
Journal of The Optical Society of America, 2011
We describe the change of the spatial distribution of the state of polarisation occurring during two-dimensional imaging through a multilayer and in particular through a layered metallic flat lens. Linear or circular polarisation of incident light is not preserved due to the difference in the amplitude transfer functions for the TM and TE polarisations. In effect, the transfer function and the point spread function that characterize 2D imaging through a multilayer both have a matrix form and cross-polarisation coupling is observed for spatially modulated beams with a linear or circular incident polarisation. The point spread function in a matrix form is used to characterise the resolution of the superlens for different polarisation states. We demonstrate how the 2D PSF may be used to design a simple diffractive nanoelement consisting of two radial slits. The structure assures the separation of non-diffracting radial beams originating from two slits in the mask and exhibits an interesting property of a backward power flow in between the two rings.
Journal of Applied Physics, 2011
We optimise the effective skin-depth and resolution of Ag-TiO 2 , Ag-SrTiO 3 , and Ag-GaP multilayers for imaging with sub-wavelength resolution. In terms of transmission and resolution the optimised multilayers outperform simple designs based on combined use of effective medium theory, impedance matching and Fabry-Perot resonances. For instance, an optimised Ag-GaP multilayer consisting of only 17 layers, operating at the wavelength of 490 nm and having a total thickness equal to one wavelength, combines 78% intensity transmission with a resolution of 60 nm. It is also shown that use of the effective medium theory leads to sub-optimal multilayer designs with respect to the trade-off between the skin depth and resolution already when the period of the structure is on the order of 40 nm or larger.
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2011
We have proposed a method for super-resolution imaging using an interlayer cascaded structure comprising two metamaterial lenses. The metamaterial lenses are designed using the effective medium theory. The lens structures consist of two different planar dielectric films alternated with similar thin metallic films, making a diverging and converging lens. With this two-lens system, an image is formed at the output surface of the lens with subwavelength resolution. We have shown, through numerical simulations and an analytical approach, that an image with resolution nine times smaller than the light wavelength (365 nm) is achievable with this metamaterial lens system. The loss during transmission through the lens system is smaller compared with the hyperlens configuration with a similar design.
Optics express, 2006
We show that diffraction-suppressed propagation of light can be achieved in one-dimensional multilayer metal-dielectric structure, leading to high-resolution imaging through metallodielectric nanofilms.
Journal of the Optical Society of Korea, 2016
An optimized multilayer superlens is designed, using a rigorous and efficient approach based on the method of moments (MoM) in conjunction with a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. For the MoM solution, fast evaluation of closed-form Green's functions (GFs) in the spatial domain is performed by applying the complex-image (CI) technique, which obviates the time-consuming numerical evaluation of Sommerfeld integrals. The imaging capability of the superlens is examined with the correlation coefficient; results show that using circular polarization for the incident wave can improve this coefficient. To validate the proposed method, finite-element-based simulations are exploited, which reveal the method's accuracy and computational efficiency. Simulation results indicate that the designed structure is capable of producing two-dimensional sub-diffraction-limited images in the visible range, which may make it more versatile for practical applications. Finally, as a considerable finding, it is demonstrated for the proposed design that using circularly polarized illumination provides improved super-resolving performance, compared to linearly polarized illumination.
Applied Physics Letters, 2008
We utilize a metal-dielectric multilayer structure to generate deep-subwavelength one-dimensional and two-dimensional periodic patterns with diffraction-limited masks. The working wavelength and the pattern are set by the flexible design of the multilayer structure. This scheme is suitable to be applied to deep-subwavelength photolithography. As an example, we numerically demonstrate pattern periods down to 50 nm under 405 nm light illumination.
Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2014
A systematic analytical approach to simulate the propagation of electromagnetic plane waves in multilayer anisotropic structures, where the layers can have arbitrary oriented optical axis is presented. The explicit expressions for the vector polarizations of electric and magnetic fields inside a randomly oriented anisotropic medium are derived. The developed algorithm operates with analytic 4×4 matrices to calculate the transmission and reflection coefficients. This algorithm is suitable to investigate the near-field/far-field electromagnetic wave interaction at any angle of incidence for numerous intriguing applications. The procedure is applied to design anisotropic single and multilayer lenses for sub-wavelength imaging.
Super-resolution imaging beyond Abbe's diffraction limit can be achieved by utilizing an optical medium or “metamaterial” that can either amplify or transport the decaying near-field evanescent waves that carry subwavelength features of objects. Earlier approaches at optical frequencies mostly utilized the amplification of evanescent waves in thin metallic films or metal-dielectric multilayers, but were restricted to very small thicknesses (<<lambda, wavelength) and accordingly short object-image distances, due to losses in the material. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of super-resolution imaging by a low-loss three-dimensional metamaterial nanolens consisting of aligned gold nanowires embedded in a porous alumina matrix. This composite medium possesses strongly anisotropic optical properties with negative permittivity in the nanowire axis direction, which enables the transport of both far-field and near-field components with low-loss over significant distances (>6 lambda), and over a broad spectral range. We demonstrate the imaging of large objects, having subwavelength features, with a resolution of at least lambda/4 at near-infrared wavelengths. The results are in good agreement with a theoretical model of wave propagation in anisotropic media.
Optics express, 2007
Contrary to the conventional near-field superlensing, subwavelength superlens imaging is experimentally demonstrated in the far-field. The key element is termed as a Far-field SuperLens (FSL) which consists of a conventional superlens and a nanoscale coupler. The evanescent fields from the object are enhanced and then converted into propagating fields by the FSL. By only measuring the propagating field in the far-field, the object image can be reconstructed with subwavelength resolution. As an example of this concept, we design and fabricate a silver structured one dimensional FSL. Experimental results show that feature resolution of better than 50nm is possible using current FSL design.
New Journal of Physics, 2005
Recently, the concept of superlensing has received considerable attention for its unique ability to produce images below the diffraction limit. The theoretical study has predicted a 'superlens' made of materials with negative permittivity and/or permeability, is capable of resolving features much smaller than the working wavelength and a near-perfect image can be obtained through the restoration of lost evanescent waves (Pendry 2000 Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 3966 9). We have already demonstrated that a 60 nm half-pitch object can indeed be resolved with λ0/6 resolution with the implementation of a silver superlens with λ0 = 365 nm illumination wavelength, which is well below the diffraction limit (Fang et al 2005 Science 308 534 7). In order to further support the imaging ability of our silver superlens, a two-dimensional arbitrary object with 40 nm line width was also imaged (Fang et al 2005 Science 308 534 7). In this paper, we present experimental and theoretical investigations of optical superlensing through a thin silver slab. Experimental design and procedures as well as theoretical studies are presented in detail. In addition, a new superlens imaging result is presented which shows the image of a 50 nm half-pitch object at λ0/7 resolution.
Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2014
After reviewing the requirements, which has to be satisfied by a metamaterial based sub-wavelength imaging systems a thin films lens is reported herein. The material of the lens is a composite of spherical Ag nanoparticles embedded in SiO 2 host material. The image of the lens is calculated, by solving the Maxwell equations, with the Transfer Matrix method. The procedure applies Maxwell-Garnet mixing rule and high frequency effective medium theory to calculate the electromagnetic parameters of the composite material. The formula of the composite material, the optimum working frequency and the thicknesses of the layers are determined by minimizing the absolute difference of the field distribution in the source and image planes. The details of the design procedure are presented and optimized configurations obtained under different constrains are discussed. The main advantage of the composite lens is that it can eliminate the hotspots present in the images of metallic superlens.
Physical Review B, 2006
Imaging with subwavelength resolution using a periodic metal-dielectric layered structure is demonstrated. The structure operates in canalization regime as a transmission device and it does not involve negative refraction and amplification of evanescent modes. The thickness of the structure has to be an integer number of half-wavelengths and can be made as large as required for ceratin applications, in contrast to the solid metallic slabs operating with subwavelength resolution which have to be much thinner than the wavelength. Resolution of / 20 at 600 nm wavelength is confirmed by numerical simulation for a 300 nm thick structure formed by a periodic stack of 10 nm layers of glass with = 2 and 5 nm layers of metal-dielectric composite with =−1. Resolution of / 60 is predicted for a structure with same thickness, period and operating frequency, but formed by 7.76 nm layers of silicon with = 15 and 7.24 nm layers of silver with = −14.
SPIE Proceedings, 2006
Recent theoretical and experimental studies have shown that imaging with resolution well beyond the diffraction limit can be obtained with so-called superlenses. Images formed by such superlenses are, however, in the near field only, or a fraction of wavelength away from the lens. In this paper, we propose a far-field superlens (FSL) device which is composed of a planar superlens with periodical corrugation. We show in theory that when an object is placed in close proximity of such a FSL, a unique image can be formed in far-field. As an example, we demonstrate numerically that images of 40 nm lines with a 30 nm gap can be obtained from far-field data with properly designed FSL working at 376nm wavelength.
Journal of Applied Optics, 2014
Nanolens based on metallic nanorod has been considered as a prospective candidate for transporting subwavelength information. Such a lens is tuned to a particular frequency by tailoring the length of the nanorod. In this paper, we have investigated the impact of filling ratio on the subwavelength imaging capabilities of such a lens. Through full-wave electromagnetic simulation, we have demonstrated that the imaging performance of silver (Ag) nanorod array does not only depend on the length and periodicity but also on the filling ratio or the radius of the nanorod. We have studied this impact for nanorod having different cross-sectional shapes such as cylindrical and triangular and examined their performances for various filling ratios.
Applied Optics, Vol. 53, Issue 26, pp. 6096-6102, 2014
A nanolens based on a metallic nanorod has been considered as a prospective candidate for transporting subwavelength information. Such a lens is tuned to a particular frequency by tailoring the length of the nanorod. In this paper, we have investigated the impact of filling ratio on the subwavelength imaging capabilities of such a lens. Through full-wave electromagnetic simulation, we have demonstrated that the imaging performance of a silver (Ag) nanorod array depends not only on the length and periodicity but also on the filling ratio or the radius of the nanorod. We have studied this impact for nanorods having different cross-sectional shapes such as cylindrical and triangular and examined their performances for various filling ratios.
Opto-Electronics Review, 2010
We characterize the sensitivity of imaging properties of a layered silver-TiO2 flat lens to fabrication inaccuracies. The lens is designed for approximately diffraction-free imaging with subwavelength resolution at distances in the order of a wavelength. Its operation may be attributed to self-collimation with a secondary role of Fabry-Perot resonant transmission, even though the first order effective medium description of the structure is inaccurate. Super-resolution is maintained for a broad range of overall thicknesses and the total thickness of the multilayer is limited by absorption. The tolerance analysis indicates that the resolution and transmission efficiency are highly sensitive to small changes of layer thicknesses.
MRS Proceedings, 2006
Conventional optical imaging systems cannot resolve the features smaller than approximately half the size of the working wavelength, called the diffraction limit. The superlens theory predicts that a flat lens made of an ideal material with negative permittivity and/or permeability is able to resolve features much smaller than working wavelength through the restoration of evanescent waves. We experimentally demonstrated the superlens concept for the first time using a thin silver slab in a quasi-static regime; a 60nm half-pitch object was imaged with 365nm illumination wavelength, λ/6 resolution, and the imaging of 50nm half-pitch object under the same light source, λ/7, was also reported. Here, we present mainly experimental studies of near-field optical superlens imaging.
Optical and Quantum Electronics, 2014
ABSTRACT 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.
Nanoscale Research Letters, 2014
Reduction of surface plasmon-polariton losses due to their scattering on metal surface roughness still remains a challenge in the fabrication of plasmonic devices for nanooptics. To achieve smooth silver films, we study the dependence of surface roughness on the evaporation temperature in a physical vapor deposition process. At the deposition temperature range 90 to 500 K, the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficients of Ag, Ge wetting layer, and sapphire substrate does not deteriorate the metal surface. To avoid ice crystal formation on substrates, the working temperature of the whole physical vapor deposition process should exceed that of the sublimation at the evaporation pressure range. At optimum room temperature, the root-mean-square (RMS) surface roughness was successfully reduced to 0.2 nm for a 10-nm Ag layer on sapphire substrate with a 1-nm germanium wetting interlayer. Silver layers of 10-and 30-nm thickness were examined using an atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray reflectometry (XRR), and two-dimensional X-ray diffraction (XRD2).
Applied Physics A-materials Science & Processing, 2011
We demonstrate numerically the diffraction-free propagation of sub-wavelength sized optical beams through simple elements built of metal-dielectric multilayers. The proposed metamaterial consists of silver and a high refractive index dielectric, and is designed using the effective medium theory as strongly anisotropic and impedance matched to air. Further it is characterised with the transfer matrix method, and investigated with FDTD. The
Physical Review B, 2012
We discuss the imaging properties of uniaxial epsilon-near-zero metamaterial slabs with possibly tilted optical axis, analyzing their sub-wavelength focusing properties as a function of the design parameters. We derive in closed analytical form the associated two-dimensional Greens function in terms of special cylindrical functions. For the near-field parameter ranges of interest, we are also able to derive a small-argument approximation in terms of simpler analytical functions. Our results, validated and calibrated against a full-wave reference solution, expand the analytical tools available for computationally-efficient and physically-incisive modeling and design of metamaterialbased sub-wavelength imaging systems.
Journal of Applied Physics, 2011
We optimise the effective skin-depth and resolution of Ag-TiO 2 , Ag-SrTiO 3 , and Ag-GaP multilayers for imaging with sub-wavelength resolution. In terms of transmission and resolution the optimised multilayers outperform simple designs based on combined use of effective medium theory, impedance matching and Fabry-Perot resonances. For instance, an optimised Ag-GaP multilayer consisting of only 17 layers, operating at the wavelength of 490 nm and having a total thickness equal to one wavelength, combines 78% intensity transmission with a resolution of 60 nm. It is also shown that use of the effective medium theory leads to sub-optimal multilayer designs with respect to the trade-off between the skin depth and resolution already when the period of the structure is on the order of 40 nm or larger.
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