Theory of optical imaging beyond the diffraction limit with a far-field superlens

Stéphane Durant; Zhaowei Liu; Nicholas Fang; Xiang Zhang

doi:10.1117/12.680804

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30 August 2006 Theory of optical imaging beyond the diffraction limit with a far-field superlens

Stéphane Durant; Zhaowei Liu; Nicholas Fang; Xiang Zhang

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Proceedings Volume 6323, Plasmonics: Metallic Nanostructures and their Optical Properties IV; 63231H (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.680804
Event: SPIE Optics + Photonics, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

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.

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Stéphane Durant, Zhaowei Liu, Nicholas Fang, and Xiang Zhang "Theory of optical imaging beyond the diffraction limit with a far-field superlens", Proc. SPIE 6323, Plasmonics: Metallic Nanostructures and their Optical Properties IV, 63231H (30 August 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.680804

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