Experimental characterization of the transfer function for a Silver-dielectric superlens

Moore, Ciaran P.; Blaikie, Richard J.

doi:10.1364/oe.20.006412

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…We can expect that the amplification of evanescent waves induced by SPP is suppressed. Hence, whether the amplification of evanescent waves benefits the super-resolution or not remains in doubt.The conventional OTF agrees very well with the imaging results [12]. Unfortunately, such a method does not bring much physical insight into the working principle.…”

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confidence: 70%

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Super-resolution imaging of a single metal layer: high loss but superior resolution

et al. 2016

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changes of the conventional optical transfer function (OTF) and add a blurring effect to the index matching condition [7][8][9]. Actually, the phase correction could be achieved by either tuning the working wavelength [8,9] or adjusting the permittivity of the metal film [10]. However, no evidence shows that these phase-correction methods are related to the amplification of evanescent waves. On the other hand, subwavelength roughness on metal film provides imaging enhancement rather than distortion [11]. We can expect that the amplification of evanescent waves induced by SPP is suppressed. Hence, whether the amplification of evanescent waves benefits the super-resolution or not remains in doubt.The conventional OTF agrees very well with the imaging results [12]. Unfortunately, such a method does not bring much physical insight into the working principle. Note that, the ability of NFSL to realize super-resolution is the result of excitation of SPP waves on the metal film [3]. In this sense, a study of super-resolution imaging from the point of view of SPP theory will be beneficial.In this work, the super-resolution imaging of the typical NFSL is described and investigated in terms of the SPP mode theory. It is revealed that the modes with high loss will suppress the amplification of evanescent waves but bring us better imaging resolution. In addition, it is proposed and numerically demonstrated that surrounding medium with high refractive index benefits the super-resolution imaging. Meanwhile, we notice that index matching between metal and dielectric could not produce the best imaging result. Based on our study, a physical explanation is provided. Theory, simulation and discussionThe typical NFSL is a thin metal film, which is sandwiched by semi-infinite dielectric medium, as schematically shown Abstract In this work, we re-analyze the influence of the loss on the super-resolution imaging of a single metal layer superlens system and reveal its positive role of the imaging. The analysis is based on the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) theory. We show that SPP mode with high loss could suppress the amplification of evanescent waves and concentrate the energy, thus contribute to the imaging. We propose to surround the metal layer with high index medium to increase the loss of the SPP modes. The proposed structure shows better performance in super-resolution imaging than the low loss cases. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the results by using two-dimensional finite element method.

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supporting

confidence: 70%

“…The conventional OTF agrees very well with the imaging results [12]. Unfortunately, such a method does not bring much physical insight into the working principle.…”

supporting

confidence: 70%

Super-resolution imaging of a single metal layer: high loss but superior resolution

et al. 2016

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“…In Ref. (Moore and Blaikie 2012), the MDM material was removed in order to make an AFM measurement of the developed photoresist.…”

Section: Coherent Image Formation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The theory of three-dimensional point spread function (Zapata-Rodríguez et al 2011) (PSF) as well as a vectorial PSF (Kotyński et al 2011) have been recently developed for MDM. It is possible to measure the modulation transfer function (MTF) experimentally in a double exposure experiment (Moore and Blaikie 2012). However we are not aware of any attempts to measure the amplitude transfer function, or equivalently the complex PSF for coherent illumination.…”

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confidence: 99%

Determination of the point spread function of layered metamaterials assisted with the blind deconvolution algorithm

et al. 2014

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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.

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“…To date, many studies on the multilayer near-field superlenses have been done by researchers [3,[10][11][12][13][14]. Most of these studies have focused on the silverpolymer multilayer at the matching condition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and Design of an Object-Independent Superlens

2016

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A new design for the multilayer superlens, with the sub-wavelength imaging ability for various 2D objects in the visible range, is introduced and analyzed. The designed superlens will be more versatile for practical applications. A rigorous and efficient approach based on the method of moments is used to study the imaging performance of this structure. The imaging performance of the proposed superlens is evaluated using the correlation coefficient. In this work, the closed-form dyadic Green's functions in spatial domain, needed for the method of moments solutions, are obtained by applying the complex image method. Besides, the numerical integration is exploited to verify this method. The imaging results obtained via our approach are examined by comparison with the finite element method simulations that reveal good efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method.

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Experimental characterization of the transfer function for a Silver-dielectric superlens

Cited by 9 publications

References 17 publications

Super-resolution imaging of a single metal layer: high loss but superior resolution

Super-resolution imaging of a single metal layer: high loss but superior resolution

Determination of the point spread function of layered metamaterials assisted with the blind deconvolution algorithm

Analysis and Design of an Object-Independent Superlens

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