A superoscillatory focusing lens has been experimentally demonstrated by optimizing Fresnel zone plates (FZP), with limited physical insight as to how the lens feature contributes to the focal formation. It is therefore imperative to establish a generalized viable account for both FZP (amplitude mask) and binary optics (phase mask). Arbitrary superoscillatory spots can now be customized and realized by a realistic optical device, without using optimization. It is counterintuitively found that high spatial frequency with small amplitude and destructive interference are favorable in superfocusing of a superoscillation pattern. The inevitably high sidelobe is pushed 15λ away from the central subwavelength spot, resulting in significantly enlarged field of view for viable imaging applications. This work therefore not only reveals the explicit physical role of any given metallic/ Amplitude Mask Binary Phase Mask dielectric rings but also provides an alternative design roadmap of superresolution imaging. The robust method is readily applicable in superthin longitudinally polarized needle light, quantum physics and information theory.To observe microscale objects, people always pursue superresolution imaging by decreasing the focused spot [1], tailoring the evanescent wave [2, 3], utilizing the nonlinear effect [4], exploiting the digital-image-processing technique [5, 6] and developing novel equipments [7,8]. The newly demonstrated optical microscopy based on superoscillatory focusing provides another route to superresolution imaging [9]. This superoscillatory optical microscopy with the resolution of λ/6 has gained much attention because its focused spot can be infinitesimally sharp according to the superoscillation theory, which opens up a promising conceptual avenue to imaging arbitrarily small objects. Nevertheless, the superoscillatory spot with smaller feature suffers from its higher sidelobe, which, to some extent, imposes great challenges in the further application in high-resolution imaging resolution. Since the superoscillatory spot is inevitably accompanied by its high sidelobe [10,11], one cannot eliminate the sidelobe if the superoscillation arises. Hence, it is nontrivial and imperative to push the high sidelobe far enough apart from the center, so as to produce realistic applications. However, this requires the elaborate manipulation over superoscillation via complicated lens design. The reported methods of constructing a superoscillatory pattern in an optical lens mainly rely on optimizing algorithms [9, 12] for FZP. Hence, the underlying physics, relating every feature of the physical lens structure and their contribution on the imaging plane, is not revealed yet, which in turn limits the flexible and controlled

Traditional objective lenses in modern microscopy, based on the refraction of light, are restricted by the Rayleigh diffraction limit. The existing methods to overcome this limit can be categorized into near-field (e.g., scanning near-field optical microscopy, superlens, microsphere lens) and far-field (e.g., stimulated emission depletion microscopy, photoactivated localization microscopy, stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) approaches. However, they either operate in the challenging near-field mode or there is the need to label samples in biology. Recently, through manipulation of the diffraction of light with binary masks or gradient metasurfaces, some miniaturized and planar lenses have been reported with intriguing functionalities such as ultrahigh numerical aperture, large depth of focus, and subdiffraction-limit focusing in far-field, which provides a viable solution for the label-free superresolution imaging. Here, the recent advances in planar diffractive lenses (PDLs) are reviewed from a united theoretical account on diffraction-based focusing optics, and the underlying physics of nanofocusing via constructive or destructive interference is revealed. Various approaches of realizing PDLs are introduced in terms of their unique performances and interpreted by using optical aberration theory. Furthermore, a detailed tutorial about applying these planar lenses in nanoimaging is provided, followed by an outlook regarding future development toward practical applications.

Abstract:The principle of transformation optics has been applied to various wave phenomena (e.g., optics, electromagnetics, acoustics and thermodynamics). Recently, metamaterial devices manipulating dc currents have received increasing attention which usually adopted the analogue of transformation optics using complicated resistor networks to mimic the inhomogeneous and anisotropic conductivities. We propose a distinct and general principle of manipulating dc currents by directly solving electric conduction equations, which only needs to utilize two layers of bulk natural materials. We experimentally demonstrate dc bilayer cloak and fan-shaped concentrator, derived from the generalized account for cloaking sensor. The proposed schemes have been validated as exact devices and this opens a facile way towards complete spatial control of dc currents. The proposed schemes may have vast potentials in various applications not only in dc, but also in other fields of manipulating magnetic field, thermal heat, elastic mechanics, and matter waves.Controlling electromagnetic (EM) fields so as to render an object invisible, has been a long-standing dream for many researchers over the decades [1,2] . On the basis of the invariance of Maxwell's equations where equivalence is established between metric transformations and changes in material parameters, transformation optics [3] and conformal mapping [4] have been 2 developed to manipulate EM wave propagation in a practically arbitrary manner. Besides making objects invisible [1][2][3][4] , many other novel devices are rapidly emerging, with a representative one being a concentrator [5,6] that can enhance the energy density of incident waves in a given area. In addition to manipulation of EM waves [1][2][3][4][5][6] , the theoretical tool of coordinate transformation has been extended to other areas of physics (such as acoustic waves [7] , matter waves [8] and elastic waves [9] ).Recently, many significant achievements have been made in the manipulation of magnetostatic field [10][11][12][13][14][15] , thermal conduction [16][17][18][19] , and electrostatic field [20][21][22][23][24] . In 2007, Wood and Pendry proposed a dc metamaterial that pointed the way towards the design of static magnetic cloak [10] , and the dc metamaterial was experimentally verified soon afterwards [11] . Recently, the dc magnetic cloak is theoretically investigated [12] and experimentally realized using superconductors and ferromagnetic materials [13,14] . By using the same materials as dc magnetic cloak, the theoretical realization of a dc magnetic concentrator is also demonstrated [15] . On the basis of form invariance of the heat conduction equation, transformation thermodynamics is investigated to manipulate diffusive heat flow [16] ; through tailoring inhomogeneity and anisotropy of conductivities, transient thermal cloaking has been experimentally demonstrated [17] . In addition, manipulation of heat flux with only two kinds of materials (by utilizing a multilayered composite approach) has been ...

Optical nanoprobes, designed to emit or collect light in the close proximity of a sample, have been extensively used to sense and image at nanometer resolution. However, the available nanoprobes, constructed from artificial materials, are incompatible and invasive when interfacing with biological systems. In this work, we report a fully biocompatible nanoprobe for subwavelength probing of localized fluorescence from leukemia single-cells in human blood. The bioprobe is built on a tapered fiber tip apex by optical trapping of a yeast cell (1.4 μm radius) and a chain of Lactobacillus acidophilus cells (2 μm length and 200 nm radius), which act as a high-aspect-ratio nanospear. Light propagating along the bionanospear can be focused into a spot with a full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of 190 nm on the surface of single cells. Fluorescence signals are detected in real time at subwavelength spatial resolution. These noninvasive and biocompatible optical probes will find applications in imaging and manipulation of biospecimens.

It has a pivotal role in medical science and in industry to concentrate the acoustic energy created with piezoelectric transducers (PTs) into a specific area. However, previous researches seldom consider the focal resolution, whose focal size is much larger than one wavelength. Furthermore, there is to date no such design method of PTs that allows a large degree of freedom to achieve designed focal patterns. Here, an active and configurable planar metasurface PT prototype is proposed to manipulate the acoustic focal pattern and the focal resolution freely. By suitably optimized ring configurations of the active metasurface PT, we demonstrate the manipulation of focal patterns in acoustic far fields, such as the designed focal needle and multi foci. Our method is also able to manipulate and improve the cross-sectional focal resolution from subwavelength to the extreme case: the deep sub-diffraction-limit resolution. Via the acoustic Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral (RSI) cum the binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO), the free manipulation of focusing properties is achieved in acoustics for the first time. Our approach may offer more initiatives where the strict control of acoustic high-energy areas is demanding.