No Arabic abstract
The diffraction limited resolution of light focused by a lens was derived in 1873 by Ernst Abbe. Later in 1952, a method to reach sub-diffraction light spots was proposed by modulating the wavefront of the focused beam. In a related development, super-oscillating functions, i.e. band limited functions that locally oscillate faster than their highest Fourier component, were introduced and experimentally applied for super-resolution microscopy. Up till now, only simple Gaussian-like sub-diffraction spots were used. Here we show that the amplitude and phase profile of these sub-diffraction spots can be arbitrarily controlled. In particular we utilize Hermite-Gauss, Laguerre-Gauss and Airy functions to structure super-oscillating beams with sub-diffraction lobes. These structured beams are then used for high resolution trapping and manipulation of nanometer-sized particles. The trapping potential provides unprecedented localization accuracy and stiffness, significantly exceeding those provided by standard diffraction limited beams.
Super-oscillating beams can be used to create light spots whose size is below the diffraction limit with a side ring of high intensity adjacent to them. Optical traps made of the super-oscillating part of such beams exhibit superior localization of submicron beads compared to regular optical traps. Here we focus on the effect of the ratio of particle size to trap size on the localization and stiffness of optical traps made of super-oscillating beams. We find a non-monotonic dependence of trapping stiffness on the ratio of particle size to beam size. Optimal trapping is achieved when the particle is larger than the beam waist of the superoscillating feature but small enough not to overlap with the side ring.
We experimentally demonstrate that a new nanolens of designed plasmonic subwavelength aperture can focus light to a single-line with its width beyond the diffraction limit that sets the smallest achievable line width at half the wavelength. The measurements indicate that the effect of the near-field on the light focused is negligible in the intermediate zone of 2 < kr < 4 where the line-width is smaller than the limit. Thus, as a verification of theoretical prediction, the fields focused are radiative and with a momentum capable of propagating to the far zone as concerned by the limit.
The edge diffraction of a homogeneously polarized light beam is studied theoretically based on the paraxial optics and Fresnel-Kirchhoff approximation, and the dependence of the diffracted beam pattern of the incident beam polarization is predicted. If the incident beam is circularly polarized, the trajectory of the diffracted beam centre of gravity experiences a small angular deviation from the geometrically expected direction. The deviation is parallel to the screen edge and reverses the sign with the polarization handedness; it is explicitly calculated for the case of a Gaussian incident beam with plane wavefront. This effect is a manifestation of the spin-orbit interaction of light and can be interpreted as a revelation of the internal spin energy flow immanent in circularly polarized beams. It also exposes the vortex character of the weak longitudinal field component associated with the circularly polarized incident beam.
The use of structured light beams to detect the velocity of targets moving perpendicularly to the beams propagation axis opens new avenues for remote sensing of moving objects. However, determining the direction of motion is still a challenge since detection is usually done by means of an interferometric setup which only provides an absolute value of the frequency shift. Here, we put forward a novel method that addresses this issue. It uses dynamic control of the phase in the transverse plane of the structured light beam so that the direction of the particles movement can be deduced. This is done by noting the change in the magnitude of the frequency shift as the transverse phase of the structured light is moved appropriately. We demonstrate our method with rotating micro-particles that are illuminated by a Laguerre-Gaussian beam with a rotating phase about its propagation axis. Our method, which only requires a dynamically configurable optical beam generator, can easily be used with other types of motion by appropriate engineering and dynamic modulation of the phase of the light beam.
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.