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Fei Qin, Xiangping Li, Minghui Hong. From super-osciallatory lens to super-critical lens: surpassing the diffraction limit via light field modulation[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2017, 44(8): 757-771. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1003-501X.2017.08.001
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From super-osciallatory lens to super-critical lens: surpassing the diffraction limit via light field modulation
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Abstract
Super-oscillatory lens (SOL) and super-critical lens (SCL) are the typical representatives of planar metalens which could achieve sub-diffractive focusing and imaging in far field by means of light field modulation. Through precisely modulating the interference effect of each diffractive unit, the electromagnetic wave could be oscillated faster than its maximum frequency components in a certain region of the target plane, and then the focal spot size is controllable in lateral and longitudinal directions. Compared with the traditional optical lens, the planar metalens is much more attractive in the fields of diffractive optics and nanophotonics due to its distinct advantages of powerful focusing capabilities, compact configuration, higher design freedom and the integratable properties, etc. In this review, we briefly introduce the field modulation mechanism and design principle of planar metalens. The research advances of the super-oscillatory lens and super-critical lens, as well as their applications in far-field label-free super-resolution imaging, are discussed in detail. In addition, a perspective about the future outlook of planar metalens is summarized. Since the planar metalens has powerful capability in manipulating the light field, the rapid development in various applications would be gradually realized in the near future. -
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References
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Overview
Improving the imaging resolution has always been one of the most important topics since the invention of optical microscope. Due to the fundamental laws of wave optics, the focusing and imaging resolution of traditional refraction and diffraction lenses are subject to the Rayleigh Criterion (0.61λ/NA), and the spatial resolution of optical microscopy is restricted to ～200 nm at visible light. Tremendous efforts have been made to fight against the diffraction limit in the past decades, and several novel approaches have been invented which could be categorized as near-field and far-field modes. For the near-field techniques, such as NSOM, superlens, hyperlens, microsphere lens, they always suffer from the challenges of near-field operation and small field of view, which make them not meet some requirements of practical applications. Although very high imaging resolution in far-field could be achieved by the fluorescence-based approaches, all these techniques have a common feature that is quite limited to biological domain because of the requirement to put dyes and fluorescence into objects. Therefore, the label-free technique for super-resolution imaging in far field is very important for general applications. Recent advance in this field is the development of planar metalens which could achieve sub-diffractive focusing and imaging in far field by means of light field modulation. Super-oscillatory lens (SOL) and super-critical lens (SCL) are the typical representatives of planar metalens. Through precisely modulating the interference effect of each diffractive unit, the focal spot size in a certain region of the target plane is controllable in lateral and longitudinal directions. Combined with the confocal technique, the label-free superresolution imaging could be realized in far field with purely non-invasive manners. Compared with the traditional optical lens, the planar metalens is much more attractive due to its distinct advantages of powerful focusing capabilities, compact configuration, higher design freedom and the integratable properties, etc. In this review, we briefly introduce the field modulation mechanism and design principle of the planar metalens. The research progress of the super-oscillatory lens and super-critical lens, as well as their applications in far-field label-free super-resolution imaging, is presented in detail. The advantages and limitations of that planar lens are compared and briefly discussed. A perspective about the future outlook of planar metalens is summarized. Since the planar metalens has a powerful capability in manipulating the light field, the rapid development in various applications would be gradually realized in the near future.
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Fei Qin, Xiangping Li, Minghui Hong. From super-osciallatory lens to super-critical lens: surpassing the diffraction limit via light field modulation[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2017, 44(8): 757-771. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1003-501X.2017.08.001
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Figure 1.
Comparison between typical optical super-resolution techniques and their corresponding imaging resolutions[4].
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Figure 2.
The focal spot size of planar diffractive lens could be divided into three parts by Rayleigh (black) and super-oscillation (white) criterions, including sub-resolved (orange), super-resolution (cyan) and super-oscillation (dark blue). The insets in the right side are the field distributions of the focal spots for three typical diffractive lenses[85].
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Figure 3.
The diffraction effect at a certain plane(z=20λ) for a single belt with different widths and numerical apertures. (a) Illustration of the diffraction effect of a single belt with its radius r0 and width △r. (b) Root-mean-square error (RMSE) between the diffracting intensity at the target plane and its corresponding zero-order Bessel function for different widths and radius of a single belt. (c), (d) The line profiles of the diffraction intensities at the positions A and B in Fig. 3(b), with its corresponding zero-order Bessel function with the same numerical apertures. (e) The dependence of the amplitude modulation coefficient on the width and radius of the single belt[85].
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Figure 4.
(a) Generation of a sub-diffractive hotspot by nanoholes array in an opaque screen. (b) The comparison between the super-oscillating functions with its highest harmonic fourier component. (c) The experimental results of the subwavelength super-oscillating focal spot by a quasi-periodical holes array[82].
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Figure 5.
(a) Schematic of the optical super-oscillation effect. (b) The intensity and phase profile of a transmission mask which could generate a subwavelength hotspot. (c) A possible configuration of a plasmonic focusing device for creating super-oscillation hotspot[79].
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Figure 6.
(a) Photograph of the super-oscillatory microscope. (b) SEM image of the fabricated SOL. (c) The simulated energy distribution for the 640 nm wavelength SOL at the distance of 10.3 μm away from the lens plane. (d) Experimental focal spot with a FWHM of 185 nm. (e) SEM image of a hole array sample. (f) Simulated imaging result of the hole array sample by the SOL microscopy. (g) Experimental imaging result by the SOL microscopy[74, 80].
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Figure 7.
Focusing effect of the 633 nm super-critical lens induced by the azimuthally polarized beam with vorticle phase. (a) Simulated energy distribution at the focal plane of z=150 μm. (b) Experimental recorded focal spot pattern. (c) Line profile of the intensity distribution for the simulated and measured focal spot. (d), (e) Simulated and experimental recorded optical needle formed in the range from z=140 μm～160 μm. (f) FWHM of the optical needle along the propagation direction[91].
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Figure 8.
(a), (b) The simulated and measured optical hollows created by the 633 nm SCL induced by azimuthally polarized beam. (c) Line profile of the intensity across the focal spot for the simulated and measured results. (d) Characterization of the polarized property of the optical hollow[91].
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Figure 9.
(a) Schematic configuration of the 405 nm supercritical lens. (b) SEM image of the fabricated 405 nm SCL. Inset is the zoom-in view of the dashed box region. (c) Line profile of the sub-diffractive focal spot under illumination of 405 nm circular polarized beam. (d) Experimental recorded intensity distribution of the sub-wavelength optical needle[87].
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Figure 10.
(a) Schematic of the SCL microscopy. (b) The photograph of the SCL microscope system. (c) SEM of the nanoscale big dipper as the imaging specimen. (d) Imaging result by the normal transmission-mode microscopy. (e) Imaging results by the laser scanning confocal microscopy. (f) Imaging result by the 405 nm SCL microscopy[87].
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Figure 11.
Large-scale non-periodic patterns imaged by the supercritical lens microscopy. (a), (c) The SEM images of fabricated samples with a size of 13.5 μm × 13.5 μm. (b), (d) The imaging results by the supercritical lens microscope[87].
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Figure 12.
(a) Schematic of the binary phase planar metalens. (b1)～(b3) Sub-diffractive focusing by the binary phase planar metalens under illumination of radial polarized beam. (c1)～(c3) Shaping subwavelength optical hollow with the binary phase planar metalens induced by azimuthally polarized beam[105, 106].
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Figure 13.
Quality indices of three types of planar metalens. FZP, SOL and SCL refer to the fresnel zone plate, superoscillatory lens and supercritical lens, respectively.
