No Arabic abstract
Recently it was reported that deeply subwavelength features of free space superoscillatory electromagnetic fields can be observed experimentally and used in optical metrology with nanoscale resolution [Science 364, 771 (2019)]. Here we introduce a new type of imaging, termed Deeply Subwavelength Superoscillatory Imaging (DSSI), that reveals the fine structure of a physical object through its far-field scattering pattern under superoscillatory illumination. The object is reconstructed from intensity profiles of scattered light recorded for different positions of the object in the superoscillatory field. The reconstruction is performed with a convolutional neural network trained on a large number of scattering events. We show that DSSI offers resolution far beyond the conventional diffraction limit. In modelling experiments, a dimer comprising two subwavelength opaque particles is imaged with a resolution exceeding ${lambda}/200$.
Imaging below the diffraction limit is always a public interest because of the restricted resolution of conventional imaging systems. To beat the limit, evanescent harmonics decaying in space must participate in the imaging process. Here, we introduce the method of spatial spectrum sampling, a novel far-field superresolution imaging method for microwave and terahertz regime. Strong dispersion and momentum conservation allow the spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSP) structure to become a sensitive probe for spatial harmonics. This enables that the spatial information of the targets including both propagating and evanescent components, can be extracted by tuning and recording SSP in the far field. Then, the subwavelength resolution is constructed by the inversed Fourier transform of the sampled spatial spectrum. Using the modified subwavelength metallic grating as the spoof plasmonic structure, a far-field resolution of 0.17 wavelength is numerically and experimentally verified, and two-dimensional imaging ability is also fully discussed. The imaging ability and flexibility can be further optimizing the SSP structures. We are confident that our working mechanism will have great potentials in the superresolution imaging applications in the microwave and terahertz frequency range
We present the experimental reconstruction of sub-wavelength features from the far-field of sparse optical objects. We show that it is sufficient to know that the object is sparse, and only that, and recover 100 nm features with the resolution of 30 nm, for an illuminating wavelength of lambda=532 nm. Our technique works in real-time, requires no scanning, and can be implemented in all existing microscopes - optical and non-optical.
This work focuses on the generation of far-field super-resolved pure-azimuthal focal field based on the fast Fourier transform. A self-designed differential filter is first pioneered to robustly reconfigure a doughnut-shaped azimuthal focal field into a bright one with a sub-wavelength lateral scale (0.392{lambda}), which offers a 27.3% reduction ratio relative to that of tightly focused azimuthal polarization modulated by a spiral phase plate. By further uniting the versatile differential filter with spatially shifted beam approach, in addition to allowing for an extremely sharper focal spot, whose size is in turn reduced to 0.228{lambda} and 0.286{lambda} in the transverse as well as axial directions, the parasitic sidelobes are also lowered to an inessential level (< 20%), thereby enabling an excellent three-dimensional deep-subwavelength focal field ({lambda}3/128). The relevant phase profiles are further exhibited to unravel the annihilation of field singularity and locally linear (i.e. azimuthal) polarization. Our scheme opens a promising route toward efficiently steer and tailor the redistribution of the focal field.
Modern scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) has become an indispensable tool in material research. However, as the s-SNOM technique marches into the far-infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) regimes, emerging experiments sometimes produce puzzling results. For example, anomalies in the near-field optical contrast have been widely reported. In this Letter, we systematically investigate a series of extreme subwavelength metallic nanostructures via s-SNOM near-field imaging in the GHz to THz frequency range. We find that the near-field material contrast is greatly impacted by the lateral size of the nanostructure, while the spatial resolution is practically independent of it. The contrast is also strongly affected by the connectivity of the metallic structures to a larger metallic ground plane. The observed effect can be largely explained by a quasi-electrostatic analysis. We also compare the THz s-SNOM results to those of the mid-IR regime, where the size-dependence becomes significant only for smaller structures. Our results reveal that the quantitative analysis of the near-field optical material contrasts in the long-wavelength regime requires a careful assessment of the size and configuration of metallic (optically conductive) structures.
Transmission spectra of metallic films or membranes perforated by arrays of subwavelength slits or holes have been widely interpreted as resonance absorption by surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Alternative interpretations involving evanescent waves diffracted on the surface have also been proposed. These two approaches lead to divergent predictions for some surface wave properties. Using far-field interferometry, we have carried out a series of measurements on elementary one-dimensional (1-D) subwavelength structures with the aim of testing key properties of the surface waves and comparing them to predictions of these two points of view.