Optical subdiffraction-limited imaging and lithography utilizing metamaterials or surface plasmons

The optical microscope revolutionized all aspects of science, especially biology and medicine. However the conventional optical microscope has a resolution limit due to the diffraction limit. The electron microscope has nanoscale imaging resolution but it is costly and requires an imaging environment that can be harmful to living biological samples. It is desirable to develop an optical imaging method that can achieve imaging resolution comparable to that of the electron microscope, which would enable us to observe and study the previously unobservable processes and structures of living biological samples.;The optical lithography is the most widely used microfabrication process that uses light to transfer the patterns on photo-mask to a photo-sensitive material, called photo-resist. The resolution of the optical lithography is also limited due to the diffraction limit. The rapid progress in nanoscale science and technology requires overcoming the diffraction limit and maintaining the fast pace of reducing the resolution of the optical lithography.;In this work, I report several optical imaging and lithography techniques that utilize metamaterials or surface plasmons to achieve subdiffraction-limited resolution. Firstly, I present the work of the optical far-field superlens, which is an imaging device that can convert evanescent waves into propagating waves so that subdiffraction-limited images can be reconstructed from far-field measurements. Then, I describe the work of the optical hyperlens and generalized hyperlens, which can magnify the subdiffraction-limited objects and project the magnified images to the far field. I also report new optical lithography methods that use metal-dielectric multilayer system to generate subdiffraction-limited patterns from diffraction-limited masks or illumination patterns. Finally, I present the work of a flying-head plasmonic system, which can be used for optical high-resolution lithography and imaging with scanning speed two to five orders faster than that of other scanning lithography and imaging methods.