Molecular Scale Imaging with a Smooth Superlens

TL;DR

This paper presents a low-loss silver superlens capable of resolving features at 1/12th of the wavelength, enabling high-fidelity nanoscale imaging and nanofabrication in a single snapshot.

Contribution

The authors develop a smooth, low-loss silver superlens using nanoimprint technology and a germanium wetting layer, achieving sub-nanometer surface roughness and resolving 30nm features.

Findings

Resolved 30nm half-pitch lines with FWHM better than 37nm

Achieved resolution at 1/12th of the illumination wavelength

Demonstrated potential for parallel imaging and nanofabrication

Abstract

We demonstrate a smooth and low loss silver (Ag) optical superlens capable of resolving features at 1/12th of the illumination wavelength with high fidelity. This is made possible by utilizing state-of-the-art nanoimprint technology and intermediate wetting layer of germanium (Ge) for the growth of flat silver films with surface roughness at sub-nanometer scales. Our measurement of the resolved lines of 30nm half-pitch shows a full-width at half-maximum better than 37nm, in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. The development of this unique optical superlens lead promise to parallel imaging and nanofabrication in a single snapshot, a feat that are not yet available with other nanoscale imaging techniques such as atomic force microscope or scanning electron microscope.