Spherical metallic nanoparticle arrays for super-resolution imaging

We report super-resolution imaging in a metamaterial system comprising spherical silver nanoparticle chain arrays, where each chain consists of nanoparticles with a smaller particle added to the end. Our simulations reveal that silver nanoparticale chains have subwavelength resolution capability at visible wavelengths and that the field intensity in the imaging plane varies with the number of layers of nanoparticles, their polarization, and their coupling. By adding a smaller nanoparticle at the end of each chain, the resolution capability is significantly enhanced, and high-quality super-resolution imaging can be realized for incident waves polarized along the chain direction. VC 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3553875]