Graphene on meta-surface for super-resolution optical imaging with a sub-10 nm resolution

Abstract

Nowadays, wide-field of view plasmonic structured illumination method (WFPSIM) has been extensively studied and experimentally demonstrated in biological researches. Normally, noble metal structures are used in traditional WFPSIM to support ultra-high wave-vector of SPs and an imaging resolution enhancement of 3-4 folds can be achieved. To further improve the imaging resolution of WFPSIM, we hereby propose a wide-field optical nanoimaging method based on a hybrid graphene on meta-surface structure (GMS) model. It is found that an ultra-high wave-vector of graphene SPs can be excited by a metallic nanoslits array with localized surface plasmon enhancement. As a result, a standing wave surface plasmons (SW-SPs) interference pattern with a period of 11 nm for a 980 nm incident wavelength can be obtained. The potential application of the GMS for wide-field of view super-resolution imaging is discussed followed by simulation results which show that an imaging resolution of sub-10 nm can be achieved. The demonstrated method paves a new route for wide field optical nanoimaging, with applications e.g. in biological research to study biological processes occurring in cell membrane.

Metasurfaces for biomedical applications: imaging and sensing from a nanophotonics perspective

“…In particular, SIM utilizes light interference patterns to improve the resolution and is uniquely suitable for wide-field biological imaging with high speed. The recently developed plasmonic structured illumination microscopy (PSIM) explores the interference of the counter-propagating surface plasmon waves of adjacent metallic slits of subwavelength dimensions [106,107]. The tuning of the interference pattern was achieved by changing the light incident angle.…”

Super-Resolution Imaging with Graphene

“…For near-field applications, graphene has been integrated with NSOM, superlens, and wire medium, and therefore can provide magnification of the evanescent waves for achieving super-resolution imaging [ 86 , 87 , 88 ] via tunable conductivity and the coupling of graphene plasmons [ 89 , 90 , 91 ]. Monolayer graphene was demonstrated to offer a sevenfold enhancement of evanescent information and successfully resolve buried structures at a 500 nm depth with λ ⁄11-resolution via graphene-enhanced NSOM in 2014 [ 70 ].…”

Far‐Field Superresolution Imaging via Spatial Frequency Modulation

“…Most importantly, the propagation length and the effective refractive index can be dynamically tuned by adjustment of the chemical potential of graphene through applying temperature field, [273] magnetic field, [274] or electrical field. [270] Thanks to these inherent properties, researches on GPs have made remarkable progress [275,276] and found comprehensive applications in transformation optics, [277,278] nanoimaging, [105,[279][280][281] and tunable metamaterials. [273,282,283] Besides, the developments on upconversion fluorescent nanoparticles, that converse nearinfrared (NIR) light to visible wavelengths, [284,285] have made it more easier to facilitate the visible superresolution imaging using GPs in the NIR range.…”

“…To further increase the resolution and make it suitable for practical application, another scheme termed as hybrid graphene on metasurface structure (GMS) was proposed. [280] The physical mechanism of GMS is based on localized surface plasmon enhancement and GPs. The GMS structure consists of a single layer of graphene deposited on a SiO 2 /Ag/SiO 2 multilayer.…”