NER: Far-Field Optical Microscopy Based on In-Plane Image Magnification by Surface Plasmon-Polaritons

题目：NER：基于表面等离子体偏振的平面内图像放大的远场光学显微镜[j]：马里兰大学[j]: Igor smolyaninov .摘要该NER提案是基于最近推出的一种光学显微镜的新设计，理论上可以达到几纳米的分辨率。在这个新的设计中，常规的光学显微镜被二维光学排列所补充，这种排列利用了表面电磁波，称为表面等离子体极化子。这些二维光波具有纳米尺度波长和可见光范围频率的不同寻常的组合，这意味着光学显微镜分辨率的理论衍射极限可能会被推到由等离子体极化子的短波长定义的纳米尺度值。这种显微镜有潜力成为医学和生物成像的宝贵工具，其中单个病毒和DNA分子的远场光学成像可能成为现实。此外，反向使用这种显微镜可用于纳米级光学光刻。提出的新型显微镜和纳米光刻工具的发展可能在许多层面上对技术和社会产生深远的影响。我们可以设想建造新的廉价光学显微镜，其外观和成本与高中生物课上的普通光学显微镜非常相似，同时允许在30-50纳米尺度上直接可视化生物材料（如病毒和DNA分子）。这样的发展将打开“纳米宇宙”对我们社会的非常广泛的层面。

Proposal ID: 0508213Title: NER: Far-Field Optical Microscopy Based on In-Plane Image Magnification by Surface Plasmon-PolaritonsInst: U of MarylandPI: Igor SmolyaninovABSTRACTThis NER proposal is based on the recently introduced new design of an optical microscope, which theoretically could reach resolution down to a scale of a few nanometers. In this new design a regular optical microscope is supplemented by a two-dimensional optical arrangement, which utilizes surface electromagnetic waves called surface plasmon-polaritons. These two-dimensional light waves have an unusual combination of nanometer scale wavelengths and visible-range frequencies, which means that the theoretical diffraction limit on resolution of an optical microscope may be pushed down to nanometer-scale values defined by the short wavelengths of plasmon-polaritons. Such a microscope has the potential to become a valuable tool in medical and biological imaging, where far-field optical imaging of individual viruses and DNA molecules may become reality. In addition, used in reverse such a microscope may be utilized in nanometer-scale optical lithography. The development of the proposed novel microscopy and nanolithography tools may have profound impacts on technology and society on many levels. We can envision building new inexpensive optical microscopes, which would look and cost very much like regular optical microscopes in a high school biology class, while allowing direct visualization of biomaterials (such as viruses and DNA molecules) on the 30-50 nm scale. Such a development would open the "nano-universe" to very broad layers of our society.