Theory of the transmission properties of an （理论的传播特性）.pdf

Durant et al. Vol. 23, No. 11/ November 2006/ J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 2383 Theory of the transmission properties of an optical far-field superlens for imaging beyond the diffraction limit Stéphane Durant, Zhaowei Liu, Jennifer M. Steele,* and Xiang Zhang 5130 Etcheverry Hall, National Science Foundation Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1740 Received July 22, 2005; revised November 7, 2005; accepted November 21, 2005; posted December 2, 2005 (Doc. ID 63657) A conventional optical superlens for imaging beyond the diffraction limit produces images only in the near-field zone of the superlens. In contrast, an optical far-field superlens (FSL) device has a remarkable transmission property that leads to a one-to-one relationship between the far-field and the near-field angular spectra. This property makes the device suitable for imaging beyond the diffraction limit from far-field measurement. This specific FSL is composed of a properly designed periodically corrugated metallic slab-based superlens. Through the numerical design and parameter study, we show that the transmission property of this FSL is based on a specific strong-broadband wavenumber excitation of surface-plasmon polaritons supported by the nanostruc- tured metallic grating. © 2006 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 110.0180, 160.3900, 230.1950, 310.6860. 1. INTRODUCTION using a silver superlens was recently experimentally In a conventional optical imaging system using lenses, demonstrat