Sub-wavelength image stitching with removable microsphere-embedded thin film

Imaging by dielectric microspheres embedded in thin film is a simple technique to achieve optical super-resolution. However, the film-thickness effect has not caused enough attention, and its field of view (FOV) is very limited. We first introduce a method to fabricate barium titanate glass (BTG) microsphere-embedded ultrathin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films, and study their sub-wavelength imaging properties as a function of the film thickness. Our experimental results reveal that for an individual microsphere, its FOV obviously increases as the film thickness decreases, while the corresponding magnification changes barely. When the PDMS film thickness is 5-10 mu m, the FOV of a microsphere is the largest, and the images produced by the neighboring close-packed microspheres with the same size can be stitched together to form a large image, realizing effective view expansion. Our results will boost the practical capacity of BTG micro-sphere-embedded film for sub-wavelength imaging.