Super-resolution Spatial Frequency Differentiation of Nanoscale Particles with a Vibrating Nanograting

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method combining ultrasonically modulated nanogratings and heterodyne detection to differentiate nanoscale particles based on their spatial features, achieving subwavelength resolution in the far field.

Contribution

The paper presents a new scheme for detecting and differentiating deeply subwavelength particles using a vibrating nanograting and heterodyne techniques, enabling high spatial frequency analysis.

Findings

System sensitive to features as small as λ/20

Signal amplitude depends on grating period

Method enables far-field detection of high spatial frequencies

Abstract

We propose a scheme for detecting and differentiating deeply subwavelength particles based on their spatial features. Our approach combines scattering from an ultrasonically modulated nanopatterend grating with heterodyne techniques to enable far-field detection of high spatial frequency Fourier components. Our system is sensitive to spatial features commensurate in size to the patterning scale of the grating. We solve the scattering problem in Born approximation and illustrate the dependence of the signal amplitude at modulation frequency on grating period, which allows to differentiate between model nanoparticles of size $\lambda/20$.