Related papers: Focusing of light beyond the diffraction limit
Optical absorption is usually considered deleterious, something to avoid if at all possible. We propose a broadband nanoabsorber that completely eliminates the diffracting wave, resulting in a subwavelength enhancement of the field.…
Recently it has been proposed that a planar slab of material, for which both the permittivity and permeability have the values of -1, could bring not only the propagating fields associated with a source to a focus, but could also refocus…
In nanofabrication, just as in any other craft, the scale of spatial details is limited by the dimensions of the tool at hand. For example, the smallest details for direct laser writing with far-field light are set by the diffraction limit,…
Transformation optics (TO) is a new tool for controlling electromagnetic fields. In the context of metamaterial technology, it provides a direct link between a desired electromagnetic (EM) phenomenon and the material response required for…
Attosecond pulses provide unique opportunities for studies of time-resolved electron dynamics. However, focusing these pulses, typically ranging from the vacuum ultraviolet to the soft-X-ray region, remains challenging. Conventional…
We find exact conditions for the enhancement or suppression of internal and/or scattered fields and the determination of their spatial distribution or angular momentum through the combination of simple fields. The incident fields can be…
Due to its time-reversal nature, optical phase conjugation generates a monochromatic light wave which retraces its propagation paths. Here, we demonstrate the regeneration of a subwavelength optical focus by phase conjugation. Monochromatic…
Light propagation in materials with microscopic inhomogeneities is affected by scattering. In scattering materials, such as powders, disordered metamaterials or biological tissue, multiple scattering on sub-wavelength particles makes light…
This is the second article in a series of two dealing with the concept of "resonant metalens" we introduced recently [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203901 (2010)]. It is a new type of lens capable of coding in time and radiating efficiently in the…
Overcoming diffraction limit is crucial for obtaining high-resolution image and observing fine microstructure. With this conventional difficulty still puzzling us and the prosperous development of wave dynamics of light interacting with…
Optical limiters transmit low-level radiation while blocking electromagnetic pulses with excessively high energy (energy limiters) or with excessively high peak intensity (power limiters). A typical optical limiter absorbs most of the…
Using a new general approach to limits in optical structures that counts orthogonal waves generated by scattering, we derive an upper limit to the number of bits of delay possible in one-dimensional slow light structures that are based on…
We present a theoretical investigation of optical self-focusing effects in light scattering with condensates. Using long (>200 \mu s), red-detuned pulses we show numerically that a non-negligible self-focusing effect is present that causes…
Lens design uses a calculation of the lens' surfaces that permit to obtain an image from a given object. A set of general rules and laws permits to calculate the essential points of the optical system such as distances, thickness, pupils,…
We show why and when optics needs thickness as well as width or area. Wave diffraction explains the fundamental need for area or diameter of a lens or aperture to achieve some resolution or number of pixels in microscopes and cameras. Now…
We present an inline optical device consisting of four optical components that produce a laser field consisting of two sub-beams where one is radially polarized and the other is linearly polarized. In the focus, the radially polarized…
The efficient delivery of light energy is a prerequisite for non-invasive imaging and stimulating of target objects embedded deep within a scattering medium. However, injected waves experience random diffusion by multiple light scattering,…
Unlike conventional optics, plasmonics enables unrivalled concentration of optical energy well beyond the diffraction limit of light. However, a significant part of this energy is dissipated as heat. Plasmonic losses present a major hurdle…
The polarization of a coherent depolarized incident light beam passing through a disordered medium is investigated. The local polarization of the scattered far field and the probability density function are calculated and show an excellent…
Scattering often limits the controlled delivery of light in applications such as biomedical imaging, optogenetics, optical trapping, and fiber-optic communication or imaging. Such scattering can be controlled by appropriately shaping the…