Theory of the transmission properties of an optical far-field superlens for imaging beyond the diffraction limit

A conventional optical superlens for imaging beyond the diffraction limit produces images only in the near-field zone of the superlens. In contrast, an optical far-field superlens (FSL) device has a remarkable transmission property that leads to a one-to-one relationship between the far-field and the near-field angular spectra. This property makes the device suitable for imaging beyond the diffraction limit from far-field measurement. This specific FSL is composed of a properly designed periodically corrugated metallic slab-based superlens. Through the numerical design and parameter study, we show that the transmission property of this FSL is based on a specific strong-broadband wavenumber excitation of surface-plasmon polaritons supported by the nanostructured metallic grating. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America