All-Optical Self-Referenced Transverse Position Sensing with Subnanometer Precision

Abstract

The emergence of technologies operating at the nanometer scale for applications as varied as nano-fabrication and super-resolution microscopy has driven the need for ever more accurate spatial localization. In this context, nano-structures have been used as 1 probes in order to provide a reference to track lateral drifts in the system. Yet nanometer precision remains challenging and usually involves complicated measurement apparatus. In this work we report a simple method based on symmetry considerations to measure the position of a sub-wavelength nano-structure. For a particular choice of structures, gold nano-particles, we demonstrate a sub-nanometer lateral precision of 0.55 nm. The versatility of the method also allows for the use of different structures, offering a promising opportunity for sub-nanometer positioning accuracy for a wide variety of systems.

Towards fully integrated photonic displacement sensors

“…Therefore, the presented experiments represent an important step toward fully integrated optical devices even beyond displacement sensing. More complex designs might be implemented to build chip-scale combined wavelength 38 , polarization [39][40][41] , position [10][11][12]42 , and wavefront (tilt) 43 sensors. The realization of an integrated device, capable of sensing multiple degrees of freedom of an external light source simultaneously, might become relevant for applications like sample stabilization in microscopy 6 , adaptive optics, and acceleration sensors.…”

Towards fully integrated photonic displacement sensors

“…More complex designs might be implemented to build chip-scale combined wavelength [35], polarization [36][37][38], position [10][11][12]39] and wave-front (tilt) [40] sensors. The realization of an integrated device, capable of sensing multiple degrees of freedom of an external light source simultaneously, might become relevant for applications like sample stabilization in microscopy [6], adaptive optics, and acceleration sensors.…”

Measuring picometre-level displacements using speckle patterns produced by an integrating sphere

“…A number of methods have emerged to resolve displacement at or below the nanometre level [5,6]. For example, tracking the light scattered by a point emitter [7] or a nano-antenna [8] can resolve displacements at sub-nanometre level. Phase variations of the superoscillatory fields generated by a Pancharatnam-Berry metasurface can resolve displacements of the metasurface at the nanometre-level [9], while the transverse displacement of two such phase gratings can be detected by the polarisation rotation this encodes on a laser beam, with 0.4 nm resolution (i.e.…”