Subwavelength optical imaging through a metallic nanorod array

Abstract

We propose a subwavelength imaging system without a lens or a mirror but with an array of metallic nanorods. The near-field components of dipole sources were plasmonically transferred through the rod array to reproduce the source distribution in the other side. We calculated the field distribution at the different planes of imaging process using the finite-difference time-domain algorithm and found that the spatial resolution was 40? nm given by the rod size and spacing. A typical configuration is a hexagonal arrangement of silver rods of 50? nm height and 20? nm diameter. We also show that the image formation highly depends on the coherence and the polarization of the source distribution and the source-array distance. © 2005 The American Physical Society.