Scanning near-field optical microscope for characterizing nanoscale metascreens and metamaterials

在纳米尺度上对光的聚焦和操纵对于纳米光刻、显微镜、生物传感、提高太阳能电池的效率，甚至新兴的癌症治疗等应用都非常重要。为了实现这一目标，新型纳米结构需要具有不同寻常的电磁特性，被称为“超材料”。具体来说，在多伦多大学，我们一直在开发一种叫做“超屏幕”的新型纳米结构，用于在纳米尺度上聚焦和操纵光。我们已经在微波频率下展示了超分辨成像特性。最近，我们已经在纳米尺度上制造了超屏幕，但我们缺乏表征它们的设备。为此，我们建议购买一台近场光学显微镜，这将使我们能够完成metascreen技术的开发。此外，同样的仪器对于表征正在开发的许多新的超材料/纳米光子器件将是无价的。

The focusing and manipulation of light at the nanoscale is very important for applications such as nanolithography, microscopy, biological sensing, enhancement of the efficiency of solar cells and even emerging novel cancer therapies. To achieve this goal, novel nanostructures are required with unusual electromagnetic properties called 'metamaterials'. Specifically, at the University of Toronto we have been developing a new class of nanostructures called 'metascreens' to focus and manipulate light at the nanoscale. We have already demonstrated the super-resolving imaging properties of metascreens at microwave frequencies. Recently, we have fabricated metascreens at the nanoscale but we lack the equipment to characterize them. For this purpose, we are proposing to acquire a near-field optical microscope which will enable up to complete the development of our metascreen technology. Moreover, the same instrument will be invaluable for characterizing a host of new metamaterial/nanophotonic devices as are being developed.