Far-field optical microscope with nanometer-scale resolution

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel far-field optical microscope design that leverages high effective refractive indices of surface plasmons to achieve nanometer-scale resolution, surpassing traditional diffraction limits.

Contribution

The paper presents a new microscope design utilizing surface plasmons with large effective refractive indices to attain nanometer-scale resolution in far-field imaging.

Findings

Achieves nanometer-scale resolution beyond diffraction limit

Uses surface plasmons with high effective refractive index

Potential application in nanometer-scale optical lithography

Abstract

The resolution of far-field optical microscopes, which rely on propagating optical modes, is widely believed to be limited because of diffraction to a value on the order of a half-wavelength $\lambda /2$ of the light used. Although immersion microscopes have slightly improved resolution on the order of $\lambda /2n$, the increased resolution is limited by the small range of refractive indices n of available transparent materials. Here we demonstrate a new far-field optical microscope design, which is capable of reaching nanometer-scale resolution. This microscope uses the fact that the effective refractive index $n_{eff}$ of a planar dielectric lens or mirror placed on a metal surface may reach extremely large values, up to $10^3$, as seen by propagating surface optical modes (plasmons). In our design a magnified planar image produced originally by surface plasmons in the metal plane is viewed by a regular microscope. Thus, the theoretical diffraction limit on resolution is pushed down to nanometer-scale $\lambda /2n_{eff}$ values. Used in reverse, such a microscope may become an optical lithography tool with nanometer-scale spatial resolution.